Mike Voss Reviews Armando Montelongo’s E-book

Frequent visitior, Mike Voss, offers the following review of Armando Montelongo’s e-books to readers of Flip This Lawsuit. Please note, Flip This Lawsuit has not reviewed the e-books, and the opinions expressed in the review are not necessarily those of Flip This Lawsuit.

You can view the entire review by clicking the title above.

Greetings everyone. Let me start by thanking those who loaned me their copies of Armando’s “e-book” and also saying sorry it has taken me so long to complete this review. Since I don’t want anyone, least of all Armando, to have any grounds to say that I have not thoroughly read and reviewed this book, I have read it no less than 3 times. The going was slow because every time I read something that needed to be addressed, which was constantly, I had to stop and write a point into my review outline which I later expanded into this full review. My approach was simple: I kept lists of good points and bad points as I read and every time I found either one I wrote it down. In the end, the bad points handily outnumbered the good points (and by good, I do not mean original or highly useful, but simply not harmful) by more than 4 to 1.

I will give you my overall impression of this work and then analyze it from beginning to end. With all that said, here we go.

There is a fundamental problem with Armando’s book that is, in my view, a fatal flaw. Let me see if I can explain it. If your objective is to be highly successful in any endeavor, it stands to reason that you may start out knowing little or nothing whatsoever. So, the question that naturally comes to mind is this: how can you become knowledgeable enough to intelligently get involved in this particular business? Bear in mind that this is one of the most complex endeavors you can get into. A house is a non-trivial entity with a myriad of complex systems and structures, all of which need to be made so as to last at least 20 years while protecting the safety of the occupants. That being said, let’s start with something a bit simpler as an example:

If you were interested in opening a pizza store, you wouldn’t go open a store after studying restaurant accounting, leasing spaces, price point negotiation, and other secondary things – not if you were smart anyway. You’d go work in a pizza store for about a year and learn everything from the inside out, and THEN apply that knowledge against accounting, finding store space, etc. in the context of your target business area.
Or, say you wanted to become an expert on cars so that you could buy, restore, and sell them. Would you go to work at a car dealership? Again, not if you are smart – you’d go work in a body shop for a year, and only THEN look into the logistics of buying and selling the cars you now have the skills to restore.

So, why then would anyone approach `flipping’ houses any differently? The answer is that, if they’re smart, they wouldn’t. And that’s where the problems with Armando’s e-book begin. The entire book is based on the approach that the reader will not have to ever know anything about repairing or building houses, and that is preposterous. Armando would have you believe that you can know nothing about the most expensive items any person will ever buy or sell in their lifetime, yet still be so much more knowledgeable than everyone else in the marketplace that you can exploit that marketplace to turn “30 houses every month”. (Which, by the way, Armando does NOT do and has NEVER done. Period.) This is flawed, incorrect, and inaccurate and, quite frankly, it’s just a lie. To say that a person who knows nothing about houses can make huge profits buying and selling them is akin to saying that a person with no knowledge of gemology can make a fortune buying and selling diamonds. That sounds preposterous, doesn’t it? So why does the assertion that you can do the same thing with houses, which are about as varied and complex as diamonds, sound any less preposterous? Anyone who thinks they can make a living dealing in a commodity in which they are anything less than an expert is a fool. I’ve spent 20+ years to get to my current level of knowledge, and compared to any number of other people out there, I still know very little. Do you think that, with no knowledge of homebuilding and repair, that you are even minimally equipped to do battle in this arena? You’re not!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there are no shortcuts. There are, however, books written by people with orders of magnitude more knowledge than Armando available at about 1/10th the cost of this e-book with about 100 times the useful information in them.
In case you don’t want to stick around for the post-mortem, I’ll mention a few now:

I’ll be honest – I didn’t want to like this book. Why? Because I watch Kirsten’s show Property Ladder and I know she’s a long time realtor and I generally don’t care much for realtors. Why? Because I think paying people the equivalent of a year’s salary for most people to sell a house (which usually is less than 50 hours total work) is arcane and on it’s way out. I notice a heavy real estate agent bias in the show from time to time, so that has always annoyed me just a bit. That said, this is a great book, especially for those wanting to find out what is involved for a first timer. It is, quite literally, everything Armando’s e-book isn’t and at literally about 1/10th the cost . (look for books used on Amazon and save big money – another tip you should know and use as you build your knowledge and library) This book will tell you, in the style which Kirsten tells the clueless fools on Property Ladder who rarely listen, how to do things correctly and what happens when you don’t. Included are tales of what happened when Kirsten got burned on different deals and why. If you only read one book before deciding if this business is for you, this should probably be it. It will detail for you all of the costs, factors, and variables you may not even know about – few of which will you see in Armando’s e-book. And Property Ladder is also a unique show to watch since you get to see what happens when people don’t listen – the failure rate is more realistic than other shows. And Kirsten is pretty easy to look at. ?

You’ve heard it over and over: cut out the GC and do it yourself and you can save up to a 50% markup! Is that true? Well the number might be more like 25%, but it could be that high. The part that isn’t true is that the GC does nothing but hire subs to earn that money. Being a GC is the toughest task on any build. This book will educate you as to why. Most people are ready to save that money, but few are even aware of all the tasks they’ll be signing on for when they do and get into trouble fast. This book will give you a cut and dried blueprint including all the variables to figure out what you can save and if you should do it. Remember, in every state, General Contractor is a licensed trade designation – people have to put in a lot of time and experience to wear that hat, so you will need to understand what they’re responsible for if you want to tackle it. it’s a whole lot more and harder than you imagine it is, but you can certainly do it if you take the time to learn what’s really involved – and this book will tell you.

Of all the books in my personal library, I can honestly say I refer to these the most. This series of full color illustrated guides to plumbing, electrical, carpentry, masonry, etc. are just excellent. B&D has gone to great lengths to make all kinds of special photographs including cutaway views and multi angles to show *exactly* how to do things and do them right and to code. Seriously, if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you could plumb or wire an entire house with the knowledge in these books. They are always available in Home Depot which is almost certainly where I first found them, but can be had for huge discounts through Amazon. Whatever you buy them for, they are worth hundreds of times their price in knowledge, time saving tips, and just plain telling you how to do things right. The series were clearly written by or based on the work of master craftsmen and it shows.

OK, this is a TV show, not a book, but it is the best show about construction currently on TV in my opinion. It airs on the Discovery Home Channel or you can buy CDs of entire seasons at the above website. In a nutshell, Mike Holmes is a master builder who goes to houses where people have been completely screwed by contractors, tears out the bad work, and rebuilds it correctly. The things the average person can learn from this show are staggering because the amount an experienced contractor can learn is immense. Mike Holmes is a 2nd generation contractor who grew up working with his dad who was clearly a vanishing breed – the old school kind of contractor who cared sincerely about his work and would never cut a corner. The true value of the show is not in the techniques or knowledge – it is in Mike’s attitude – he cares. Again and agein when he’s tearing out some terrible or dangerous bad work, he’ll say, “look at this, they just didn’t care” and that’s what it boils down to. If you want to do good work, you have to care also. You’ll also see how to deal properly with good trades people and the result of doing good work for people. As far as I’m concerned, Mike Holmes is the man. I’d work on his crew for free.

OK, now on to the main event. Here is my review of Armando’s $100 e-book.

Book 1 “Foundation” 24 Pages

Right off the bat, this section was really annoying me. It is almost entirely composed of “how to get rich” book clichés which are not what we are supposed to be buying here. I have heard from others that some of it is directly lifted from such books by other authors. (isn’t that plagiarism?)

When this section finally gets around to talking about something of substance, there are a few viable points in it. There are some tips to avoid red-flagging the IRS (not really an issue if you’re not breaking the law) which are reasonable, but he recommends hiring a CPA when all that is really necessary is a skilled tax preparer. He also recommends using QuickBooks, which is a great program that I use. There is basic advice on insurance for properties as well, although owner-occupied houses will need different strategies.

That’s about it for the good in this chapter. We get a repeat of the now proven-false claim of flipping 30 houses per month (still waiting for you to post some kind of proof of that, Armando) and adds the new false claim of owning 100 rental buildings. (not units – buildings) This guy just never quits. If I had paid for this book, I’d be fuming at this point. The lies from this guy are just beyond insubstantiable. He then goes on to claim to be the number one house flipper in America and states that nobody flips more houses than him. Are you feeling glad you didn’t give him your money yet? Next Armando advises us to only take advice from people making at least 2 times as much money as you do. I would add to that that you should always QUALIFY that income, including Armando’s because, at present, his liabilities seem to far exceed his assets. We then get a plug for his mentoring program, followed by continual talk of a “system:” that will negate the need to learn anything about construction trades. Sound unlikely? That’s because it is – more on that later.

Finally, we get his strategy of what kind of houses and configurations to look for and in what area. While it sounds plausible for San Antonio, as I’ve often mentioned real estate is a local market, so this strategy will not work in a huge number of places. So that info will be worth nothing to many people and Armando demonstrates his clear lack of knowledge of real estate markets on a national level.

This chapter opens with our being told that “the money follows the deal”, meaning that if you can get a deal set up, money to make it happen will turn up. This is patently false, and a dangerous trap to set yourself up in. If property is like gold in your area and you could lock up the rights to purchase a house at a good deal, then yes, probably you could find someone to step in and either fund it for you or buy out your option on that property. The problem? In most areas of the country, those kinds of markets no longer exist. Furthermore, sellers don’t like that kind of crap and generally put in fail safes (like non-refundable deposits) to deter people who try to lock up properties in escrow without having any means to buy them. So no, money does not follow the deal, deals now follow the money, and if you have none you won’t be making any.

We then get a discussion of reasons for motivated sellers, all of which are old, outdated, and clichéd. People chasing the “4 Ds” of death, divorce, disease, and disaster nowadays are mostly wasting their time. People are not stupid and know in a heartbeat when a bottom feeder is trying to get into their good graces. It’s just not that simple and never will be again. What’s more, smart people have connections at much earlier junctions (i.e.; a divorce lawyer who could tell them long before you’d ever know of a divorce) that make these avenues worthless. Hot deals are found by much more sophisticated means than looking at foreclosure listings or obituary notices, and if you have the potential for this business you will figure those out for your market in time. The best way is being known as a good developer/investor amongst people who might have something to sell. (Would you want to sell to Armando based on what you know of him? My point exactly.)

The next recommendation in this chapter almost knocked me out of my chair. Armando actually recommends that, even if you have NO EXPERIENCE remodeling or transacting houses, you offer yourself as an “expert” witness to lawyers involved in the disposition of properties. Only the worst kind of fool would be willing to walk into a courtroom misrepresenting himself as an expert to be qualified by opposing counsel, exposed as a fraud, and likely held in contempt of court. Armando’s logic that “as an investor you are an expert in property values” borders on the comical, and advising others to do such a thing clearly borders on the criminal. Don’t try this at home, folks, you may end up behind bars.

There is also a false presumption that any homeowner suing an insurance company (not a very common thing unless there’s been a disaster recently.) wants to sell their house. Most people want just the opposite – to have their house made whole again. This is a false premise to start off on. Further, he talks of “approaching homeowners with the tack of solving their problems”, which assumes you can even get near a homeowner to do so. People are not stupid and the hordes of fools created by courses like this or foreclosure courses fill mailboxes of people who might have distressed homes and cause a stream of wannabe bottom feeding clowns to their door. After one or 2 such encounters, you’re more likely to encounter a shotgun barrel when the homeowner is sick of being bothered. I know of multiple cases where bottom feeders like Armando intentionally trespassed distressed properties (or properties they erroneously thought were distressed due to getting bad info from 3rd party services – beware!) and were shot dead by homeowners. Bad idea – don’t try it.

Armando also talks of pulling comps on houses and using square footages to determine values. This doesn’t work and is why services like Zillow are worthless. One block over, a certain street can drop property values by ½. You MUST know the neighborhood, houses, and exact features to compare apples to apples, otherwise you are just wasting your time on bad numbers. Comparables are one of the most frequently improperly calculated numbers in all of real estate and you cannot do them like a machine – machine comps are always useless.

Another tactic that Armando recommends when approaching people you should go nowhere near is to tell them that, “That’s why I’m in this business – to help you.” Do you actually think for a minute anyone would believe that? This is a real insight into the mindset of a con man. You’re in this business first and foremost to make a living. Hopefully, if you’re a decent person, you will only do so if you can avoid hurting others and, then, preferably also helping them. If you are only in any business to help others, you are what is known as a charity and likely not intending to make a profit. Don’t lie to people you are trying to make a deal with. They are not stupid and will not appreciate it.

A more important tack you might take with such a person if you have such an opportunity is to educate them as to how to transact a sale with no agents (and no commissions) involved. Of course, Armando doesn’t explain how to do this competently, but it can be done and is very common and safe.

Book 3 “Fund” 13 Pages

This chapter had literally no good points in it, so here are the negatives.

First off, Armando handles credit like poor people do and it shows. There’s an old saying: “a banker is someone who will give you all the money you want.just as soon as you can prove you don’t need any of it.” Get credit BEFORE you need it, not after you’re on the hook for a property renovation with a gun to your head! Most of his deals are done with hard money lenders . Hmmmmm.. why would someone as wealthy as Armando claims to be have to pay those rates from such usury lenders? I’ll tell you why, because he doesn’t have any wealth. There’s another old saying: If you want to be rich, watch what the poor people do and don’t do it. Hard money is for people who can’t borrow money elsewhere at better terms. I can borrow 300,000 tomorrow at 6% or so, so why would I go to a hard money lender and pay 10 – 20% and several points for the same amount? The answer is I wouldn’t, and neither should you if you don’t have to. For Armando to advise using such lenders just shows that his credit hasn’t improved much since when he was on food stamps 5 years ago.

Additionally, hard money lenders lend on LTV (Loan To Value ratio – amount of loan verses current property value) , not ARV(after-repair value) ARV is speculative and hard money lenders are looking for secured investments. Only with a STRONG track record will they even consider ARV, and then they’ll charge you a bunch more money for it. Banks are even less likely to ever do this. Lenders are not looking to make unsecured or under secured loans, period.

The next tactic of having someone sign over their house on a “subject to” basis is absolute stupidity. Nobody in their right mind will ever sign away 100% of their house unless you pay them the equivalent amount, and anyone asking someone to do so is nothing more than a thief. Someone proposed such a deal to a friend of mine once, and he told me about it. I told an FBI agent friend of mine about it and he took a keen interest. Bottom line: If you take an interest in someone’s property, you must only take title to an appropriate percentage. If you take more, you are stealing from them. Using things like power of attorney to further this is little more than fraud or identity theft. Just the fact that Armando delves into these illicit tactics shows that he is considerably more versed as a grifter and con artist than a homebuilder. I hope you are all starting to get the picture. Lastly, He recommends using green folders to keep records in instead of red so that they will symbolize making money instead of losing it.

Are you fricking joking me? For this information you want to take $100 of people’s hard earned money? Onward…

Book 4 “Fix” 21 Pages

This chapter had one useful item in it: Driving around to see work in progress IS a good way to find subcontractors, so long as you know what to look for. There is, however, no description of what to look for or what to avoid, and that’s because the author likely has no idea. As such, the tip is, essentially, useless.

Now we start getting into the really improbable. Armando recommends setting up a “Cookie cutter system” to do every flip the same. This is impossible. Ask any competent remodeler. Rarely are 2 houses the same. Completely unrealistic.

Next, he emphasizes speed, speed, speed. This is bad, bad, bad. There’s an old saying in construction: Good, fast, cheap: Pick any 2. Armando’s work is fast and cheap, that’s why it isn’t good and why his houses have been revealed to rarely sell. You can bet anyone living in something he’s built is seriously unhappy.

According to Armando, you will only walk through the property you flip 3 times total. Ever. Again, are you kidding? You shouldn’t even BUY a property you’ve only been through 3 times. This is becoming ridiculous.

He goes on to say that you don’t want to be involved in the work. Wrong. If you are not involved, who is going to be? Unless you have a contractor who can be trusted 100% to do everything, including make critical decisions, you’re in trouble. You HAVE to be involved, or your product will be garbage.

He goes on to recommend retexturing ceilings. Do I even need to tell anyone that this should NEVER be done? Textured ceilings went out in the 80s forever and nobody ever wants one today. Bad contractors loved them because the texturing is easy and hides all kinds of flaws. Can you guess why Armando likes this?

He goes on to recommend pedestal sinks in master baths. Terrible idea because there will be no storage. Pedestals are fine for powder rooms or ½ baths, but not full baths or masters. This is very basic real estate stuff he doesn’t even know. He then says that it should only cost about $3000 to gut and replace an entire bath. Tile alone could cost this much. This is clearly someone who does not know what he is doing.

He goes on to claim he’s been doing properties for 5 yrs (not long) and has burned through 100 subs in 3 years. Clearly, the subs are not the problem – Armando is.

Next, Armando claims that subcontractors have a`shelf life’ of 6 months to 2 years before they must be replaced.. Again, this is totally untrue and just reveals more of his nature. Good trades people are who you want to keep an ongoing relationship with for years, decades, or a lifetime. Treating them like disposable commodities is how you end up when you treat people like dirt, constantly try to cut their prices, and have no understanding of what work they do in order to know it’s value.

Further, Armando advocates using only subcontractors in place of a general contractor.
That’s fine if, and only if, you know enough about being a GC to know whether or not the sub you have charged with that task can do it. If not, you will be in for bad surprises when things don’t work out.

We are also told in this section that any sub should do 2 weeks work per $10,000 expended. This is patently absurd as there is no standard “burn rate” for trade work. To even suggest so is the mark of an incompetent amateur.

Just to take a minute for perspective, if you’re following the Armando method, you now have a project you paid hard money rates for, which you never visit but 3 times total, where there is no GC supervising the work and the disposable trades people who you`ve hammered down on price to the absolute minimum are supposed to be GC ing the job for you. To call this a recipe for disaster is an understatement, and you can now understand why most of the projects depicted on the Montelongo segments of the TV show have been exposed as complete failures. This is flagrant stupidity. But it gets even better – we are also told that, since we are not visiting the site, that we should have the subs (who are running the job) buy digital cameras and take 4 pictures of every room and the exterior each week to send to us so we can see the progress and send their draws. I’m not even going to comment on how preposterous this is. Even with 20+ years experience I would only rely on this method with subs I’d known a VERY long time on a project with which we were both thoroughly familiar, and even then only if it couldn’t be avoided, like if I were on vacation or such for a short time. Anyone thinking they can “phone in” the construction supervision of a house is a fool.

The last gem in this chapter is the suggestion that you “back charge” subs for deficiencies in their work after it has been performed. The whole idea of milestone payments to subs is that you are THERE ONSITE regularly to look at their work’s progress and quality BEFORE you pay them and are always holding back enough to have leverage when you need changes. To suggest that you never come onsite, manage by pictures, and then attempt to collect back money for anything not done properly (which you’d then have to have corrected) is sheer comedy. Go try to get money back from a sub who has completed some work for you – rotsa ruck!

Book 5 “Flip” 14 Pages

This chapter presents the idea of using auctions to sell completed properties, which is not a bad idea. It is suggested that you have a lender with whom you have a relationship present at the auction to offer instant financing, and this is also a good idea. All in all, the auction concept is sound, but, especially if it is your first time doing one, it would be best to have an expert auctioneer or auction house helping run the show for you. (you can watch and learn and maybe do it yourself next time, and their take is negotiable)

The suggestion of refinancing from a hard money to conventional note is sound, and carrying a 2nd trust before or after via down payment for the buyer is a tried and true method to facilitate a sale.

One thing I would suggest for an auction is to have a professional appraisal and inspection available for potential buyers to see. This will increase their confidence that they are bidding on a sound house of good value.

All in all, this chapter has almost no info in it, and transitions early on into plugging Armando’s $1000 “master course”. The last page of the chapter is a full page ad for the master course with links right in it and suggestions that to get the real info you need to spend another $1000.

I think it’s been pretty well established here that you not only don’t need to spend that $1000, but that far more information is available elsewhere either free or at about 1/10 the cost of the $100 e-book form Armando.

The bottom line is this: If Armando were making money flipping houses, he’d be doing that. He’s trying to sell how-to courses because, as we have seen documented thoroughly now, he doesn’t make any real money in real estate and is attempting to make money as a get-rich-quick infomercial guru. The show is entertaining, but it is not educational and this cast member and his cohorts have nothing to teach you. Where and how people spend their hard earned money is their own concern, but the fact is indisputable that Armando Montelongo has demonstrated next to zero credibility and anyone thinking of sending him their money is well advised to look at inexpensive/free sources of far superior information from known credible sources available elsewhere.

Mike thanks for taking the time out of your busy life to read this rubbish. I have been watching Mike Holmes for a few years here in Canada on HGTV, and have learned volumes this way. Watching Armando proves to be a process of entertainment, but nothing close to sound advice. Anyone who believes this man, better beware.

In this promotion you have actually highlighted a very important basic factor in internet marketing, the guarantee. It is so important to have a guarantee if you are marketing a product. There is alot of anxiety among newbies that people will abuse this guarante, but the fact is, if you are selling a high quality product, the risk of abuse is low.

Anyone that’s been stupid enough to buy in to this garbage is likely living in a homeless shelter now. So recovering the $97 (or ninety nine cents on eBay) they initially spent is the least of their problems.

The book has parts in it that actually contradict itself, and “Armando’s story of success.” Lets say hypathetically you were somehow able to establish a perfect (did you notice that word perfect, that doesn’t exist) work environment in which you were able to be absent from your own jobsite, and put it soley into the hands of contractors- this would take years to accomplish, and therefore you woud not be able to pick up his book, learn from it and make it happen, therefore not getting rich quick. You would have to learn from your mistakes. Also, if this crazy hypathetical situation were so, then you certainly wouldn’t constantly recycle your contractors (HANG ON TO THESE GUYS!), and let fresh hands now control your new jobsite. If you have stipulations where you can deduct pay from contractors for doing improper work, then hello, you have a lot of improper work going on at your jobsite, AND, most likely have a crew that needs someone to WATCH OVER THEM!
Oh my gosh, find the deal then find the money?! How absurd.
Also, dangerous border-line admitting to breaking the law in some parts-AND YOU SHOULD TOO! These tactics are for people who have their backs against the wall, with no opportunities to get in this game, IF THIS IS SO- THEN GUESS WHAT, YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS GETTING INTO THIS GAME. This sounds like a drug dealers guide to flipping houses- or say, A CON ARTISTS.
I started out as a professor who desired an occupation where “the more I put into it, the more I got out of it” with an opportunity to grow, expand, and of course, create wealth. You know where I started? As a low end of the ladder grunt man, on a jobsite, doing the crap work because I knew next to nothing about houses, so I observed, and climbed. You have to start out at the bottom to get to the top, there is just no way around it, but if you try really hard, then you can climb fast! Good Luck to all, including Armando.

Mike, I have not read Armando’s e-book nor do I personally know him or respect him but I would still have to say your review is horrible.In reality I would say you are the one that has no knowledge of residential real estate flips by your comments made and your use of the term “bottom feeders” shows this. If an investor doesn’t help save the people from foreclosure who will? You sound like all the winers at the real estate meetings that say they can never get a property but they aren’t willing to work to find the good deals. Word to the wise, stay away from this Mike Voss guy. He knows nothing about residential real estate investing and is clearly an angry cynic.

Angry Cycnic, he wasn’t calling the house sellers bottom feeders, he was referring to the type of buyers who present unrealistic offers to sellers. If you are a real estate investor, agent, or have any of the experience you are accusing Mike Voss of not having, you’d know and understand. Evidently you aren’t and don’t.

Well “Cynic”, assuming you aren’t Armando (which I highly doubt as your post has several of the hallmarks of his recurrent shill posts)if you haven’t read the book, then you’re not qualified to comment, now are you?

Furthermore, commenting on something of which you have no knowledge would be the pinnacle of ignorance demonstrated by you for the world to see.

Not that I need explain it to you, but there are and always have been far better avenues for people in distress (I wasn’t only talking about foreclosure, which you might know had you read more carefully) than bottom feeders looking to steal their equity and properties. There are legitimate investors, legal approaches, endless ways to refinance or restructure debt, etc., but I guess you in your superior knowledge don’t know that.

So, as anyone can tell, you’re either Armando or a similar con artist bottem feeder wannabe whose opinion is worth nothing, as evidenced by your hiding behind a fake name.

To everyone reading, here’s what will happen next, this person will NOT identify themself, will maybe post once more, and then disappear forever.

You’d expect a career con man to be more imaginitive. But, this one likes the short con, not the long.

And hey, maybe a bigtime bottom feeder will come along and bail you out on those numerous foreclosures to VCH funding that you have going! Will those be on Flip This House next season?!?!

Mike, Thanks for taking the time to review and post useful information regarding Armando’s books! I’ve been a long time lurker to this site, and even though I am an experienced real estate investor, I did often wonder if maybe things were that much rosier in other areas. I’m in NY, second only to the craziness of CA, so it certainly was nice to think, at least for a short while, that maybe there were great opportunities outside my area!

I still believe that there are opportunities to be had in every area, but acting like a jerk and treating people the way Armando does is clearly not the way to success! I realize that you often need to be firm w/your subs, but the level Armando takes it? Sorry, but we are all in this business to make money, and I would never begrudge anyone a fair days pay in exchange for a fair days labor.

Many people have mentioned it before, and the same principles do hold true. The profit is made in buying at the right price, and this business is not a get rich quick scheme. It is a long term endeavor, and there will be some great days and some really bad ones that will make you wonder why you ever bothered! It is not for everyone, and creating a quality product will pay off in spades financially, as well as emotionally. I for one like to sleep at night!

Keep up the good work everyone – Mike, Steve et all – your information and throughtfulness is time well spent! 🙂

Oh, and you are dead on about Mike Holmes – hands down, the best home improvement how-to on TV!

Help someone out of foreclosure?! How do you help someone out of foreclosure? If you buy a foreclosed property, you purchase it from the bank after the party has already sunk as deep as they can, on their own, and nothing you do is helping nor hurting them. If you are working a deal pre-foreclosure to save them from foreclosure then that is called preditory lending, and where I’m from that is highly illegal, and the last I heard in Cali you can get 10 yrs in prison for it, but maybe in San Antonio… Even if it still legal in some states, the reason it is illegal in many, is for that very reason- bottom-feeders.

The “Flip” series went in to the crapper when “Trademark” left. Sam was bad, Angie was bad, Armando is THE WORST. He sucks at business and is an overbearing cry baby. How hilarious that he is now selling this tripe. How sad that people are buying it.

I’m not in the ‘Real Estate’ biz but auctions are quite common in my profession. The following may or may not apply to real estate auctions but here are some things you might need to be aware of…

“BIDDING AGAINST A LAMP POST”

So you’re bidding and ‘someone’ is bidding against you. You look in the crowd but don’t see anyone else bidding. Why? No one is, the auctioneer is ‘playing’ you. I don’t think this is very common (anymore) but I’ve seen it happen.

“THE RINGER”

I see this one all the time. More times than not. The ‘ringer’ is a bidder that appears to be just like you. The ‘ringer’ is there to protect the sellers interest. The seller has a minimum number they want. The ‘ringer’ will run the bid up to at least that amount. If the ‘ringer’ wins the bid then the seller has essentially taken it back and the auction didn’t work for all parties involved.

“BUYERS PREMINM”

This is a cost that the winning bidder pays in addition to the winning bid number. In my line of work it’s typically 10%-15% added to the winning bid amount. The ‘buyers premium’ fee goes to the auctioneer

Buyers strategy! Know what your MAX number is BEFORE the auction INCLUDING the the ‘buyers premium’ and factor that in beforehand as part of your MAX number. Under NO circumstances exceed that number once the bidding starts. People get caught up in the moment and some lose sight of everything EXCEPT winning the bid! Don’t do it. That’s why auctions work ; )

Mike, Thanks for the review. I have wondered why Armondo is not selling his book through regular means (ie: Book via Publisher)? I know…he was probably turned down because no self respecting publisher would want to take the chance on being associated with him.

I am going to have disagree with a point that you constantly make Mike. You keep saying that people aren’t stupid. Now I don’t know what planet you live on, but the majority of people are stupid. You must have heard the phrase “there’s a sucker born every minute”. It stands true today as the day it was said. A simple yet prominent example is Jay Leno’s jaywalking or better yet go to a college these days and start listening to all the morons there. Sometimes I don’t know how people get into these school other than having deep pockets.

Another thing I wanted to address is the quality of work on these shows. Now we all know Armando is skipping 9 steps out of 10 to get his work done, but he is no different. Richard Davis might now be skipping 9 but he is skipping at least 6 steps. It is blatantly obvious when you watch the show and pause certain scenes to see where the contractors are clearly glazing over bad spots. The amateur flippers are even worse in this regard since they have no idea how anything works in a house.

Anyways those were my two points feel free to shoot back. I would like to know what you have to say.

Rob – well, unfortunately, yes I guess a lot of people aren’t super-intelligent in this world and that’s why I need to write a review like this to help protect some of them. I guess I’m an optimist, but I feel it’s more a problem that people are trusting than stupid when it comes to real estate. I spoke with a police detective the other day who was thinking about buying Armando’s book. That’s someone who delves into people’s credibility for a living who might have been fooled – certainly not a stupid individual, but this is not his area of expertise and he might have trusted what he saw on tv. When we all pool our knowledge, we’re better off wherever we may have started from.

As for the quality of work we see on these shows, I agree 100% – it is no better than a 3 out of 10 on average and that’s why you never see follow ups of how the new owners like it I’m sure. When people see crap work being slapped out like that, it’s believeble that they could know nothing, buy a house, and sell it for big profits. But what you see on TV isn’t reality and that’s why we’re here – so people know what they are getting into and where to learn the truth. Nobody can build a quality house in 30 days. Even when we work around the clock on Habitat for Humanity projects, with full cooperation from suppliers, inspectors, and volunteers, it takes months to do good work. Some laws just cannot be violated or bent, and one is that quality work takes some time. I spent close to 2 years on my last project! Granted, I was living in it and doing others too, but that’s what it took under the circumstances – and I’m still far ahead on it.

Interesting.
The project I have now took three months to architect, three months to engineer, and three months for Municipal permit. Some of this was concurrent, but still…I want to live in Richard’s world.
Gonna franchise this concept? Not in Washington State baby, or California, or Arizona as far as I know. And trust me, I know.

I’ve seen enough copies of the Montelongo’s Defaulted Mortgage Deeds to create a separate e-book on how to flip defaulted loans (but keep the repair monies to buy hummers and other cool stuff). Simply unbelievable these guys don’t have the Texas Attorney General or somebody after them for deceptive trade practice or something like that?

I felt bad for the poor girl. I’d bet money that 99.99% of people would have gave a dumb answer if they’d been asked that question and expected to give a tactful answer immediately, and in front of a large audience. I mean, this wasn’t exactly a jaywalking-level-of-ignorance question.

“Now I don’t know what planet you live on, but the majority of people are stupid.”

This statement represents several types of thinking errors, not the least of which is “confirmation bias.” That means that you don’t know why people make the choices they make, and that what you want is for the explanation to be that they are stupid, so you look for something like a cliche’ that you convince yourself is the proof that your conclusion is correct. As well, the “heuristic” thinking error represented here is that instead of taking the time to learn about why poeple make the choices they make, you take a mental shortcut, grabbing on to the first thing that comes along that you can use to justify your opinion.

The issue here is that people not only lack information, but they have never learned how to get information. That is why people like Armando and other abusers and cult leaders can gain power and control over people–they know how to manipulate that space between wanting to achieve a goal and not knowing how to create a plan and do research.

It’s not that a “sucker is born every minute,” rather it’s more like an “abuser who preys on other peoples’ vulnerabilities” is abusing every minute. And that’s not just a cliche’–that’s something that is backed up by research studies and reliable data.

Furthermore, blowing off abuse via use of cliche’ is based on fear–fear of not knowing what to do about the situation, so the situation gets minimized and dismissed.

I think I may have to get myself a pair of wrap-around sunglasses and do a parody of Armando. When I was growing up, I was *really* good at impersonating the dysfunctional and quirky aunts and uncles…Kept all the cousins rollling on the ground in pain from big belly laughs for hours. he he he

Though I do not think everyone is not blessed with genious, I don’t think that someone not being able to recall history questions in front of Jay Leno means they can be suckered into schemes. People although, not always bright, are very skeptical. Unfortunately, when someone like Armando has the fame he does before he even attempts to sell knowledge, it makes people much more trustworthy. (Most late night infomercials feature people you never heard of which helps keep you from trusting them.) Also the phrase, “There is a sucker born every minute,” was coined by PT Barnum (of Barnum and Baileys circus) in reference to people being enamored and willing to pay to see magic. In this case people know what they are paying for, and know what entertainment they will get for the small price, hardly the same as taking a gamble with a much more substantial amount of money in order to purchase something in which you really don’t know what they are getting into-or know if its worth it, but its simply guaranteed by the person selling it that it is quality

I said getting someone to title over their home to you for farless than what it’s worth is stealing, not that shopping for a bargain is. There’s a considerable difference. If I buy a $100K house for $75K, that’s a good deal. If I get an owner of a $100K house to title it over to me subject to my paying his $5000 in past due mortgage payments, then, yeah, I’m a thief. That’s what subject to buyers like Armando do, and I’ve seen it countless times. He calls it saving their credit and/or helping them. It isn’t – it’s stealing their home and it’s disgusting.

Allen is just another one of the many BS Gurus. Kiyosaki is a joke. I bought one of his books at a bookstore and laughed my way through it. I know, I know…he got the last laugh since I paid for his book.

If you want to be legit then just buy houses without using thieves’ tools like subject to offers or power of attorney. If you want to buy the house of someone behind on their payments, make them an offer the normal way. If they take it, fine. You shouldn’t need to obfuscate the deal using fraudulent tools.

I only think Kiyosaki’s first book has good info in it. The rest and his game, courses, etc. I have never bothered with. Since he started working with Trump, he appears to have made the jump to full time con guru. I saw him on some CNBC panel recently talking about his Bentley and tuned him out forever at that point.

So buying subject to or using power of attorney is using “fraudulent tools”?

People have been buying subject to for years and there is evena line item for such built into a HUD 1 form.

I just hate to see people who think they are so much “holier that thou” and their way is the only way.

I have been investing full time for almost 10 years and buy some properties subject to. I also buy for cash. I buy many properties for less than 50 cents on the dollar but that doesn’t make me a thief or a crook because you don’t agree with my methods and your harsh comments to the contrary are insulting and small minded.

Montelongo sells an e-book. So what? Maybe he is a crook. So what? Is it your job to be the e-book police and “tell the world” what a skink he is?

I don’t like him either but I have better things to do than spend hours on a site bashing him and other authors who don’t buy or sell the way you think is right.

If a seller lets me have a 92k house for the loan balance of 33k if I pay 3k in arrears and give them 7k, that makes me a crook? Yes, this happened recently. Yes, they were in foreclosure.

I suppose I should have said, no, no let me give you more money. You have a strange idea about negotiation. It was their asking price to me. Period.

Guess it would have been better to let them be foreclosed on, huh?

I am done with this but just had to say that some of you people sure take the cake with your attitude.

Re: “What would the mortgage balance of that 100k house that you made up 5k in back payments have to be before you were considered a thief?”

Here’s how Trademark played out that basic scenario twice during this last season of ‘The Real Estate Pros’. Once with the ‘War Hero’ episode and the other with the ‘Larry’ episode. Trademark brought the loan current, rehabbed the property, and SPLIT the after sale profit with the owner.

“Winner, winner, chicken dinner”

In other words it was a ‘win-win’, both for Trademark AND the owner ; )

Obviously it is subjective and depends on the individual case. Montelongo describes using these tools to get the house for nothing, such as for just the arrears. You can easily make an offer as described above the way Trademark did it without using subject to or power of atty. For God’s sake, power of attorney can be abused in an incredible number of ways.

Personally, I would try to make a deal whereby the owner would share some part of the profits. That’s how I sleep at night. Your mileage may vary. But we’re talking about specifically how Armando describes using these tools and that is what my review is based on, not how otherpeople might describ/recommend using them. He is, in my opinion, using them to take emaximum advantage of people. No, I am not the ‘e-book police’, but neither am I required to sit by while someone I know is a liar and incompetent claims to be an expert and charge for his opinion. Don’t like one of my opinions? That’s absolutely fine. It’s my opinion based on experience. But be sure to read the other 100 or so things I covered as well, because some of them are 100% impossible to misinterpret.

There are legit uses for power of atty and other such instruments, and it is 100% possible that you use them in that way and could write an e-book about the correct, ethical and legal method of doing so. But that’s not what Armando uses them for – he’s right on the edge of illlegality in my opinion. Over it in some states.

I stumbled across this site looking for the name of the flooring used in one of Armando’s shows. I have been rehabbing houses for about 15 years and doing 3-4 houses a year part time. Generally I use my retirement funds. For several houses I have used hard money and for several other people I have been a hard money lender. I buy for cash, I buy with a contract for deed with seller financing, and I buy subject to. All are legitimate tools. No one mentioned in the previous posts that the seller always has the option to say no to any proposal. Some of the houses I have done, I have resold via conventional means, some I have sold and carried the notes myself, and some I have used as rental property. Since I have not personally read Armando’s book I don’t feel qualified to comment, however, I have seen several of his shows and my personal opinion is that he acts like an ass. This may make for good TV, but not for good business. Good subs are ALWAYS in demand and the way to keep them is to treat them in a fair and professional manner. There is money to be made in rehabbing a property and either selling or keeping, but it is not an EASY thing to do. It is a JOB, and you darn well better know how to do your JOB to be successful. I agree with Mr. Voss that most of the guru stuff out there is trash. If you want to learn how to do this type of activity, go apprentice yourself to someone that is successful. That is what I did and I have never looked back.

No one speaks about the 20+ years of constuction contacts his family has from his father’s lumber company that began in 1975 that grew into a large construction business. All Armando had to do was move back to San Antonio. He is truly succeeding off of his family business (he wasn’t around to help build) and their good name and professional contacts. The majority of hard work in establishing business was already done.

If you watch the latest episode “Design Wars” which aired on 9/23/07, you will notice that Armando’s methods enumerated in his e-book don’t even work for him.
He claims you should never walk a house more than 3 times, yet I counted no less than 6 visits by him and at least 4 by Veronica, nowheredid I see contractors using digital cameras to show progress, etc., etc.

As you can see, the book is garbage and even he doesn’t follow what he recommends.

It’s been a while on here, but I had to say kudos to Mike V. for the insight on Armando’s book.

Something that has been killing me since his B.S. hit the airwaves is, how can he make claims that he flipped 30 houses in one month, owns 100 rental properties etc. and still be allowed on television????

Isn’t that breaking some type of public ethics rules or something?????

No one speaks about the 20+ years of constuction contacts his family has from his father’s lumber company that began in 1975 that grew into a large construction business. All Armando had to do was move back to San Antonio. He is truly succeeding off of his family business (he wasn’t around to help build) and their good name and professional contacts. The majority of hard work in establishing business was already done.”

Heres the shame its going to be all for nothing….I feel sorry for his ‘honest’ family.

In addition to Armandos lack of experience, his treatment of both his wife and workers is awful. I will no longer watch his show because of his arrogance, his mis treatment of his employees, his lack of courtesty to any one dealing with him and so he can take HIS MONEY and do whatever, but I will no longer encourage him, by watching his shows. And to his wife, the last time I checked, it is not HIS MONEY, 50 is yours and you should remind him of that for the sake of all other wives in this world. Good by to Armando and his Flip in San Antonio, and thank heavens I found Mike Holmes show and Richard Davis new network and show.

Come on Mike did you really read Kirsten’s book or just stare at her picture? Having flipped houses for 12 years I always educate myself on anything in my field. I read both Armondo’s and Kirsten’s book both have good and bad points. If you want the most expensive way to renovate a house and take the longest time, by all means get Kirsten’s book. Rarely do I use a general contractor. I almost always hire subs, they are faster, cheaper and I can control the quality. She spent 900k renovating a flip? She on crack, I can build a home from the ground up cheaper.

Kirsten’s book is great for selling ideas, making a budget and staging. Last chapter FAQ is the best part of the book.

Armondo’s: Good price of repairs guide, finding workers, financing, and just giving you the guts to ask for deals. OK the $10 “hollywood” lights for the bathroom is I agree is just STUPID I have never used that. Remember this is basic items. Mike I do $3,000 bathrooms with travertine all day long. Quit using that GC for tile Mike. My tile guy $4-8 sq’. labor (depending on material and layout). Diagonal layout looking at $8.00.

Oh and Mike you want a fail safe as a buyer write into the contract contingencies offer on satisfactory home inspection. Use this as a negotiating option on ever deal I do. Ask the owners to do some repairs I would have to anyway.

Read more carefully Jim – I recommend Kemp’s book for beginners (and yes, I read every word more than once as I stated) and said pro tilesetters cost that much – I pay zero on labor for tile because I set it myself. This is a review for the target victims of the book – beginners, not experienced professionals who know better. That said, you might do an entire *low end* bathroom for 3K somewhere, but you will never do a high end bath in Los Angeles for that, period. You;d end up with an obvious flipper house tht would lose money and get torn down by a developer.

Please enumerate what you consider to be the good points in Armando’s book, assuming I didn’t mention them.

There are always contingencies written into offers based on inspections – hardly anything original there. However, if you need someone else to do the inspection for you, you’re really not well equipped to be in this business – anyone who cannot assess the complete condition of a structure themself really isn’t a qualified builder/remodeler. Worse, most inspectors are not competent.

You must have alot of time or resentment to write all this. Mike what’s your credentials? What have you done so GREAT? Why didn’t FTH find a great mastermind like you and have you on the show instead? Armando is probably flippng one house is this market. I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I wish I had a show. Alot of your review is plan crap. I’m sure Armando’s book is garbage and I would never buy it. You have to give the guy some credit. It’s a business so cutting costs is all part of it. Nothing wrong with textured ceilings if you can save money. The buyers also ave a home inspection. If he’s like me and hires lincesed contractors then they’re ultimately responsibe for the quality. Oh and now you have a problem with Trump, Realors, Kirsten & Zillow! Boy is everyone was as perfect as you! Get a life and stop analyzing people & complaining!

MV wrote: “However, if you need someone else to do the inspection for you, you’re really not well equipped to be in this business – anyone who cannot assess the complete condition of a structure themself really isn’t a qualified builder/remodeler.”

Well.. that’s interesting cuz you could say this same thing to “team trademark”. Pretty much everyone of thier shows has at least one “unexpected” problem they didn’t see when purchasing.. (termites, rats, moisture damage, etc). I’d go one step further and say that if you don’t even know how to add chlorine tablets to a pool, you have no business being in the remodeling game. (and if that was for humor or drama, it was a sophomoric effort at best).

I didn’t see one document that had their NAMES on it. I can care less if they do have all these foreclosures and have no clue about property. But why bash them? They got noticed somehow and must be getting paid for the TV show. I’m jelious! A lot of inexperienced people flipped houses with all the hype and gains of the past few years. I’m also a mortgage broker so I’ve seen the gains & luck happen to the inexperienced.

Jeff (Armando) You could save a lot of time using the ASN as described in another thread.

Moron. I’m sure you do wish you were on TV – that’s why Jerry Springer is so successful. Here’s a tip: Try to lern sentence structure so your obvious shill posts at least make some sense.
And what is jelious? Does that mean you wish you were jelly filled, like the many donuts Armando and his man-boobs must be consuming?

JFK: I agree – Trademark, while far better than Montelongo, has many shortcomings, at least on TV, although some of that (like the dumpster in the garage, and probably the pool to some extent) was likely staged for laughs.

Sorry make mistakes like you “lern”. MORON!
Also busy & I’m not an english major. I do have a masters, what do you have sir? Still waiting for your credentials Michael Voss. I bet you don’t even have job because of all your investigative work on someone who achieved higher status than you.

Michael Voss man of knowledge! Everyone is a faulure including Trump & Kirsten. But not our hero Michael Voss the R.E. MAN! Anything negative to say about Bill Gates? Oh let me guess, he created the evil software that’s encroaching every business and residence oh no!Micheal Voss is THE MAN!

My credentials are well known on this site. Tell us, “Jeff” , what *exactly* are yours?

And you’d do well to look a little closer – Montelongo’s name is on many of those foreclosure documents. And he’s directly connectable to all the rest. His name is also on a slew of delinquent property tax records – I guess having a TV show pays so great that he can’t pay a few thousand dollars in property taxes from years ago, eh?

Just finished a 12 unit condominium conversion. Built 22 new condominium units. Currently working on a single family in MA and a condo in fl. Own 2 mortgage broker firms in MA and 42 rental units & 3 commercial strip malls. How’s your bungalow? “Asswipe” that’s very juvenile talk.

I’m proud of my achievements and know how well of I am that’s why I can speak confidentally about it. I would never bash someone especially if they are having problems like Armando. He has a family and you get joy out of his foreclosures, etc. ODD!!! I don’t care about his life or his problems. Just trying to figure why you are. You seem so intrigued with someone else’s life. Maybe their is something wrong with you. I have a TV show idea for you Voss the Boss! Dr. Phil’s replacement!

Re: “Just finished a 12 unit condominium conversion. Built 22 new condominium units. Currently working on a single family in MA and a condo in fl. Own 2 mortgage broker firms in MA and 42 rental units & 3 commercial strip malls.”

I’m sure you wouldn’t have any problem posting some verifiable proof of that but I won’t hold my breath. Unless or until you do, it’s just a baseless claim. MORON

I don’t have to prove anything to you. As I can care less about Armando, I can less if you don’t believe me. Wow another intelligent individual like the Voss Man using disparaging words like MORON. Yo obviously have something going on with Voss the Boss.

“Jeff”: ok, I’ll speak intelligently to you, not that you have warranted it.

Firstly, if you’d read carefully, you’d notice that most of your assertions are wrong. For example, I spoke quite highly of Kirsten Kemp’s book, far from bashing her, and even admitted a bias against her before reading it. That’s far from bashing someone – quite the opposite.

As for Armando, I could care less about what he does…right up until the point that he started calling himself an expert, lying flagrantly about his experience (30 houses a month and 1000 in last 5 years – still waiting for proof of that…do you have it?) and trying to take money from unsuspecting people to share his non-existent expertise. If you are really a competent developer, which I have no evidence of either way, then you would be as offended as I and every other legitimate builder out there are by his flagrant attempt to steal money from people. He’s a never was and a con artist. It’s been proven. End of discussion.

As to having a TV show, I’ve turned down several and have no interest whatsoever. There is no great fortune to be made in reality tv unless you’re trying to use it to leverage something else like ripoff books and courses with nothing in them you can’t find for free at a public library. You think it’s a coincidence that Sam Leccima (another FTH exposed fraud and criminal) and tha CT crew are doing the same thing? It’s not – they aren’t making money in housing.

lmfao…. Jeff Mike is right. Post up buddy. Any honest property developer realestate tycoon, would be majorly offended at a wannabe claiming to have their hard owned success. I don’t claim to have any expertise in flipping, just what I have done on my own home, but I can tell you with out reservation that Armando is a fake. Everyone knows that good trades people are the key to a successful flip, look at the way he treats his! So this is my recommendation. Sit and watch all 4 seasons of Mike Holmes, Holmes on Homes, then watch Armando. Guess what you’ll see? Mike Holmes, fixxing fly by night workmanship, the same workmanship that Armando does on his flips.

I’ll admit, I have some time on my hands (6pm-?). I have at Realtor at Remax selling the properties and my father handles my tenants. Also like Greg wrote it is a tough time in the lending industry. Obviously not as busy as 1999-2006. I never said Armando was the man. Who cares. We should be exchanging information, ideas, R.E. opportunities, etc. instead of discussing a reality TV actor.

I don’t know about other parts of the country, but here in LA, due to the mortgage squeese, rentals are at a premium. While I wait for some properties to sell, I’ve been dealing in some apartment buildings. In fact, none other than Richard Davis is going to be checking out one I’m selling while he’s in LA this coming week. (his brother John lives nearby)

Owning a multi-unit rental is a great income stream any time, but possibly never better than during any kind of duress on the single family housing market. The buyers also tend to be better qualified, so the mortgage debacle seems to have little effect on them thus far.

I’ve read a bit of John T. Reed’s stuff – he definitely seems to have been around the block a few times – very no-nonsense approach too.

I am also quite pleased that This Old House started a new season this week!
WELL worth watching – a very cool New England house.

William and Chantal McCorkle come to mind. They are now in prison for 18 years with no chance of parole. Same MO…rented expensive items to show-off their purported wealth, they sold their packages in the early 90’s for only $269 and $369 each…none of their claims were accurate, and they got in trouble for it…You better watch it, Mandoman, or you’re next.

Uh, Jeff, (ahem), the name of this website is, uh, FLIPTHISLAWSUIT.com and it was originally intended to expose and document the lies which Sam Leccima was perpetuating on TV. That it has spilled over into Armando’s world is for the same reason — to warn unsuspecting folks as to the true nature of the person claiming to be an “expert.”

That it has exceeded that and become a place to exchange ideas is, as they say, “the icing on the cake.” But the original reason we all lurk (and post) here is still the same…the vent and groan at the (now-after-you’ve-read-the-myriad-of-posts) OBVIOUS lack of supposed expertise the guy is hawking for $100 and up.

I’m sure any one of the TRUE experts in this field who post here would be happy to exchange any ideas with you, assuming that is the REAL reason you are lurking on the site…

PS…regarding the predatory practices of POA and Sub-to…Until I read these posts, I had no idea that this is what it was called, although I know a very wealthy couple who did this over and over again in the 80’s and early 90’s (preying on people at their lowest time and crooning all the way to the Bank). KARMA, however, has found a way to bite them. They lost their only son, one of my best friends, at 21 years old. The last in the male line. Lemme tell you, the money is a cold and lonely replacement for him.

If you can sleep at night doing what you do, more power to you. If you believe in KARMA, then maybe you better think twice about those business practices. Kudos to Mike, Steve, et al, for sharing the knowledge and sharing the wealth. I know at least YOU guys can sleep at night.

Sorry for going off on a tangent, but that is my two cents. Thanks again for reviewing the book I was about to spend my hard-earned $ on…

Well.. actually Sharisse.. you are a little mistaken. If I may take the liberty, the ORIGINAL intention of this site was not to “expose and document the lies which Sam Leccima was perpetuating on TV.” It was actually to document the lawsuit between Richard Davis, Trademark, et al vs. A&E. It does seem to have branched off into this bashing site for the next crews to film the Flip This House episodes after trademark was no longer involved.

I ordered the cd'(was quoted dvd) for $399, only to be found on ebay for $5.99
(lol) with my fellings hurt. I’m now getting calls from “my” coaches to invest another $14,500 for them to reavel mor informtion to me..hmmmm? I searches BBB to discover Premier Mentoring has partnered with them, they have only 76 omplaints, My regret is to wish i’d seen this site just 2 days earlier…

I believe you can rescind any charge on your credit card within 30 or 45 days. You should callyour credit card company immediately and say you;re dissatisfied with the product and want to return it and get a refund.

FYI, this is why a lot of infomercial ripoffs offer a “30 day money back guarantee” They require you to “evaluate” the product for 30 days – just long enough that it’s outside the charge revocation window on most credit cards.

Great review. I think you have a lot of valid points. Let me prefix my comments by first stating that I am not a fan of Armando. He seems like a major ahole to me, and a flake at that. And, I have no doubt that his book is a vain attempt to make money.

I do, however, disagree with several:

1) Although taking a property subject-to might be questionable, you can definantely take properties using a pact trust, requiring little down – and many desperate sellers are willing to do these. I have personally purchase this way. Although, there is typically little equity in these deals

2) I agree that any seasoned rehabber would definately shy away from Hard Money Lenders, but you are 100% wrong that hard money lenders lend on LTV and not ARV (at least in my area). I personally know a half-dozen in the DFW metroplex that loan (up to 70%) on ARV. Sorry, but you have this wrong 100% – they are very common, and why not? If you default on a single payment they take over the house immediately.

HMLs are also a poor long-term solution to rehabbing, but for someone with good cashflow from a seperate source (i.e. job/company) but with limited savings – this is a good *first step*. Also, at least in my areas, the HMLs are closer to 12%. And typically close within 5 days unlike conventional lenders.

Again, a good starting point but definately something that someone with Armandos supposed wealth would find expensive to say the least.

3) Regarding your comments on “the money follows the deal”. There is an entire niche market of property wholesalers who write contracts on houses in the DFW metroplex with the intention of assigning those contracts to rehabbers. While you need a solid foundation of to do this successfully, I know many people who start out this way. They find deals, and no – they don’t have funding. Again, I have personally done this.

By the way, MIKE, since you were too dumb to figure it out in your review of Armando’s EBook, he never said that you weren’t or needed to have any knowledge of home construction procedure! He said “he did not in the beginning”, and of course if you had watched hie “Assessing Properties DVD” you would know that he is quite capable and knowledgeable about home renovation procedures and their management! The EBook’s purposely left out much of the detailed information included in the Master Study Course kit to include the forms, contracts, repair sheets, etc., and was merely intended as a prelude to allow people new to real estate investing to purchase something at a low cost and low risk to them, THEN decide if they wanted further products!

As a licensed contractor and inspector, I have already determined that Armando is neither certified as an appraiser nor inspector and that he is wholly incompetent in those capacities and as any kind of tradesman or contractor.

There is no need to see his ripoff DVD because it’s already been demonstrated that he has no qualifications to speak on the subject. I don’t consider books on medicine from people who aren’t doctors, and I don’t buy DVDs on home repair/assessment from someone who has no credentials, 30+ foreclosures, and ZERO satisfied customers. Anyone reading this who wants to learn real estate appraisal can go out for less than 1/2 the price of your ripoff course and become a licensed RE appraiser in most states.

Just give it up Armando, you’re only proving the case against you. You know NOTHING dude. You’re a FRAUD in your leased cars and your unprofitable, foreclosed homes and your under 300 FICO score. Just piss off and die already, nobody is falling for your crap anymore. You’ve been completely exposed.
As soon as some unhappy customer sends me your ripoff $1000 course I’ll destroy that here too.

Mike,
I, for the most part, agree with your assesment of Armando’s book. He target’s the novice and does provide some poor advice. He also has some good advice. One piece of it is the importance of education. I’m sure part of that advice is to promote the sale of his Master Course, but his motives are his motives. It is, nevertheless, good advice. Someone considering this business should educate themselves…constantly. My fist flip was in 1982 and it was profitable. That’s why I do this. When I read something I take what I find useful and disregard the rest. The rest usually is what I feel is unethical or borderline illegal.
A novice might not have that ability. That’s why he/she should surround themselves with people who do have that savvy.
You seem to have made reviewing Armondo’s book an opportunity to attack him personally and this I don’t understand. If his business practices are unethical, he’ll get caught up in it and he will vanish. Why can’t you simply tell the buyer to beware and focus on being informative instead of so vengeful? At least that would be productive.

I’ve read the 5 section Ebook and MikeV’s review. What did I find… well,
#1 I wish I had found this site before spending $100.
#2 MikeV is right in a lot of aspects and I feel wrong in a few.
#3 Some of the book obviously was not proof-read and or edited (Microsoft Word has spell and grammer check LOL).
#4 There are some really good ideas in the book, sure an experienced Remodeler or Flipper would already know these things, but I don’t think that is what this Ebook is aimed at.
#5 EXPERT WITNESS…… are you KIDDING ME???? (enough said)
#6 Giving Subcontractors cameras and requiring photos… VERY good idea and it’s the simple things like that that make this book almost worth it. You can get a decent Dig Camera at Walmart for $50.

So, overall, for me was it worth it. Yeah, I think it has given me my jump start I needed. I’m actively looking for my first property.

Ok, I’ve got to vent one more thing also….. does anyone else watch Flip This/That House and wonder how people with NO experience at all makes money doing this?? I mean some have absolutely NO common sense. I’m pretty sure if I had NO construction/rehab experience I wouldn’t buy a house sight unseen without at least getting a professional opinion or appraisal on the house. Maybe they just don’t show that on the shows…. maybe not.

I do like Property Ladder though, I think that is the way the shows should be done, even though they stretch it a little on there sometimes too. And why don’t they ever show what the house ACTUALLY sold for versus the Real Estate “Agents” Appraisal?????

Also, thanks to MikeV I’m not watching other shows like Holmes on Homes and I bought the books you suggested… VERY good reading. And yes, being a semi-novice home builder/remodeler I LOVE the “How To” books at the front of Lowes/Home Depot.

I’m sorry but inspection by photograph is a completely unacceptable and incompetent idea. Talk to 10 of the best general contractors you can find and ask them if this is an acceptable method – you will get 10 “no” answers. Bear in mind: these are *experts* who will tell you that trade work MUST be inspected in person. If you are not an expert in the trade being looked at, it is far worse of an idea because you already don’t know what you’re looking for and now you’re going to do it by photograph!

Copper pipes might look great in a picture because you cannot see bad solder joints on the backside. You tell your subs to go ahead and close in those walls and that leak will destroy your work when those pipes have been pressurized a while. I could give 100 more examples. Inspection by proxy is a fool’s concept and anyone who thinks it is ok has no business remodeling houses for resale. (If you want to live in it, go right ahead)

Contractors,home inspectors, building inspectors, and everyone else responsible for quality work inspect that work in person. No exceptions.
Take your advice from those people, not from Armando who has none of their qualifications, certifications, nor licenses.

If you want to be smart, be onsite several times a day and shoot VIDEO of the work in progress. Then, if there’s a failure or omission down the road leading to a problem, you have a record of what work was done and how. And those subs who ARE going to be snickering behind your back if they sense you don’t know what you’re doing will be sweating doing a perfect job knowing every detail is tight there on video if they end up in court!

I just spent an hour looking for something I could glean from all of this. I have 1/2 page of notes and think #104 last paragraph is the best advice yet. Thanks for the book and show suggestions. I’ll look into them.
I think someone has gotten hold of Armondo to use him make themselves a ton of money. Whoever it is doesn’t give a rip about Armondo or anyone. Only his pocketbook. So sad that we all are subject to being taken in. Guess being human hurts.

Mike,
You are right. I guess I need to update my project recording methods, video would be much better. I take pictures before, during, and after every job I do. I have also had my pictures used in an arbitration before so I know how important it is (to protect myself from an owner that had no idea, and thought he could claim anything and anyone would believe him). Luck for us I had pictures and the arbitration team was VERY knowledgable in our form of construction, it was dismissed pretty quick.

You are right though, pictures can not/should not replace a walk-through, but having the pictures sure does help when a dispute pops up. Tip to everyone, make sure your pictures are time/date stamped, and when you get them developed, mark on the back in sharpie the date, location, who took the picture, and WHAT you are taking the picture of!!

Aloha Richard and Trademark Properties crew from Hawaii. I guess A&E is going to find out what it is like to mess with a Southern Boy. Please teach those Executives at A&E some southern manners because apparently their mamas failed to do so. After learning about this lawsuit, I am going to boycott A&E and “flip the channel” to TLC on Saturday nights to get our fix of true southern hospitality and morals on your new show.

I don’t know why have it out so bad for the Montelongos. This will probly get deleted but oh well shit happens. All you guys do are piss and moan about them,then you kiss this Mikes ass and don’t worry this ain’t Armando I am Rich from Wi. You moan about how bad the guy is you know what he is who he is if you think he’s an asshole that’s on you. How many of you never been with some and called him an asshole or a B___ I get call an ass everyday I am the King. But while you are on here complaining someone else is buying your Property you should have had and for that I say TY.

Just like Rap music or country or rock if you don’t like it shut it off. If you don’t like the Montelongos don’t watch that’s all there is to it. You say you reviewed the program but hey who are you One person. I wouldn’t care if you were Bush leave shit alone MIKE. Now you can delete if you like but remember free speech don’t be scared of someone Juding you. I stand by Armando. Take that to the bank cause while you are writing I will.Well time to get back to making money the Armando way. See Ya

Yeah, like that isn’t an obvious new presentation of the same old shill sh_t.
“I’m not Armando”
“All you do is piss and moan”
“Get back to making money”

You’re so full of sh_t, “Richard”. Everyone knows damn well why we don’t like Armando: Because he purports to be an expert in a field in which he is incompetent and attempts to take money from people by selling that non-existent expertise. THAT’S why we won’t “leave him alone”. You can lump me in with the majority around you: I’d call you an a__hole too, a__hole!

And just in case there’s any doubt, post your true name and evidence of even a single example of you “making money the Armando way”. (unles, of course, you mean stealing it, which would be totally believable.)

You didn’t discredit me And as I said my name is Richard As for what I have make I have nothing to prove to you. You the one hiding you lve off Armando’s name not in a good way either you USE him to get people to your site and his Brother live your own life instaed of putting people down to do it. Later

You didn’t discredit me And as I said my name is Richard As for what I have make I have nothing to prove to you. You the one hiding you lve off Armando’s name not in a good way either you USE him to get people to your site and his Brother live your own life instaed of putting people down to do it. Later

To freaking funny. This is not Mike’s website dumba$$ Armando shill clone get a grip better start hiding your proceeds of crime, cause well the song says it best….Whatcha gona do when they come for you…yup thats right COPS SAn Antonio will start Armando Montolongo Jr. just give it time….now that is reality TV worth watching!

I am in desperate need of all the episodes of flip this house with Armando Montelongo because I am about to sue him and the national enquirer wants this story. I have to have the episodes so I can show them to the national enquirer. I will definately mail them back to you as soon as I am done. My email is tammyandyp@hotmail.com
Thank you

Hey Steve in Texas I spoke to Mike oss last night and he knows what I am about to do to, I really don’t want to go into detail because Mr. Screwlongo reads this. Anyway I really need the episodes so I can show them to someone very willing to help. Could you please call me at 843-307-7438 I don’t really want to put o much out here, and Mike thinks its a great idea. thanks in advance.

Making money the Armando way,,,,screwing your subs! As a sub, I would never work for a GC like Armando. If I don’t get money up front, I don’t work, just that simple. Why? Because that opens the door for your to get screwed. All you can do is file a mech’s lien once the work is done. As long as there are day laborers in Tex to do the work, then there will be guys like this screwing subs. I flat out wouldn’t workk for the guy, just because he’s so arrogant. And if he showed up at a jobsite for me to bid, in that Hummvee, the price would triple. Just ask the guys at Texas State!

I had ‘some’ of the episodes on my DVR but I deleted them awhile back. Sorry I can’t help you with that. I think A&E still has them for sale though. Or, maybe if someone that has them sees your post they’ll call you! Good luck!

Clearly “Richard” hasn’t read anything because he can’t even form a freaking coherent sentence! “Richard”:, I know you probably cannot read this, but please endeavor to learn to speak English so as to make your personal attacks and shill postings more effective. Right now, sentences like, “which he does do is runs you” and “You the one hiding you lve off Armando’s name not in a good way either you USE him to get people to your site and his Brother live your own life instaed of putting people down to do it.” are f_cking killing me with laughter. I think you are Tom Vu come back from infomerical hell to steal with Armando.
You couldn’t read Armando’s e-book to save your life becaus eyou cannot even f_cking talk! See abot that 3rd grade GED and get back to us…

I have read it and do have the cd’s but you all are loser I will write no more but to all you loser goodbye.I have nothing more to say how he rips people off is beyond me. This is the business world not Tvland or scifi but you keep believing cause you have to do your own thing see ya

Thanks for the review of Armandos system as you have saved me some money. I am a new investor in Richmond, VA and currently a mortgage broker of 4 yrs. Ive read everything, watched every show but still a little scared to jump into this market, flip a house and not be able to sell. Any advice for first time?

Thanks for the review of Armandos system as you have saved me some money. I am a new investor in Richmond, VA and currently a mortgage broker of 4 yrs. Ive read everything, watched every show but still a little scared to jump into this market, flip a house and not be able to sell. Any advice for first time?

Get involved with Armando you won’t regret it I know. Don’t listen to this site I think they all when crazy and don’t need money cause with Armando you get it the right honest way

Great Richard, then you will have no problem posting the recorded public records which will show you as the owner and the prices you purchased at and sold all 4 of those properties for. Post them here. If you need someone to scan them for you, you can send them to me and I will be happy to do so. In fact, you can just tell me or Steve or anyone else who does research here your name and the county where they were recorded and the addresses – we’ll do the rest.

If you do not, you are a liar and a shill. I will personally wager $100 right now that you will not post the information because 1) you do not exist and/ or 2) if you do exist, you have made no such transactions.

Don’t even try the lame ass “I don’t have to prove anything to you ” argument, nor the “I’m not going to tell you who I am” one either. If you’re going to make a public claim, you are going to be qualified by the public. We now choose to do so. I sir, say you are a liar and a fraud. Prove otherwise if you can, until you do so, that is what you are – a liar.

I have read Armondo’s Ebook, and at the GOOD advice of Mike V I read Flipping Confidential (finished it this past week), I am currently reading Flipping for Dummies (I like several other books in the “Dummy” series). I bought these two books and a few others on the subject and spent around $40 on Amazon to get the books. Anyone that is considering getting into the flipping business should get the books I mentioned above, they are MUCH better, and more realistic in acheiving your goals than Armondo’s Ebook and MUCH betting content than a 40 page Ebook.

Thanks again Mike.

I’m going to do more reasearch through December and then try to get started in January.

Judging by the way you write, I’d say you’ve probably got the experience competing in that Olympiad to judge the veracity of that statement.

Had you the intelligence to comprehend what’s posted here, you’d understand that there is no argument. There’s only me illustrating that “Richard” has no bona fides for all to see, hence his disappearance. Feel free to join him.

Isn’t it funny how “Venera”, like all Armando shills,appears after the last one is exposed and disappears and shares the identical degree of illiteracy? Give us a break.
Why don’t you go back to being “Richard” so you can continue to try to hide your illiteracy behind that fake foreign accent persona?

I am smart – smart enough to recognize the same fake loser making fake shill post after fake shill post under different names. Get lost, nobody’s buying it.

Yeah, I wish I were him, especially since he was arrested about a month ago for not paying people small amounts of money he owes them. Is that the success you were talking about? Is being imprisoned what you consider success? Because that’s what your man Armando is facing right now, or didn’t you know that?

Give me a break. On my worst day I’m 1000 tmes more successful than Armando will ever be and that’s a fact. Get a life. You’re either the biggest fool/sucker alive or one of his shills.

I have one question for Richard and Warren and venera? If Armando is such a good guy then why would he deal with selling books to newbies? I would think if I could flip 30 to 45 houses a month i wouldn’t waste my time selling books and filming shows.

Oh i forgot he made a promise to himself and that wife of his that if he became succesful he would teach others to be wealthy as him. Ok than if it meant that much to him why the hell does he charge 1,000 dollars for a program that only shows a few good ideas and i am sure he learned them ideas from people like Mike! So why not sell the book for a non profit and truly help peopleget wealthy?

Ok I have been quiet long enough…this is to all the losers (and that’s putting it nicely) You all cry about how can we say these things about your precious Armando since no one talks to him…I am here today to tell you shut the f–k up!! I talk to Armando on the phone all the time, he talks the same way he acts, uneducated. If Armando is so great at what he does why does he need to call me for my advice?? He knows I don’t even flip houses, but he always calls for my advice pretty funny for a man (and I use that term lightly) who claims to be the #1 flipper can’t even make a decision on his own! There is a reason I continue to speak to him and in due time all you idiots who love him will be sticking your foot in your mouth!! I WILL NOT SIT AROUND AND DO NOTHING WHILE INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF!! Any one notice his discussion board has been shut down? I know why the board was closed because as soon as one person posted something negative about Armando he shut it down. A real man would of addressed the issue head on, but when your a liar it’s hard to defend yourself, so Mr. scared shut it down. Can’t defend yourself on a subject you have very little or no experience. So please all you Armando lovers buy his master course and do everything he tells you to do, go flip that house and you will go directly to jail! Until you buy his great (lol) master course shut the f__k up because unless you have it your making asses of yourselves!

lovemyboxerdog: WaW its obvious u kno nothing about business. U actualy think that he will teach people his strategies, and share his ideas at no charge, are u kidding me? He needs to grow his business and thats another way to do it, trough the internet. Look at all the holywood stars, ex: Jessica Simpson started her shoe line, j.lo her clothing line etc…that doesnt make them broke.. they just want to expend their business at any ways possible. Armado did the same thing.So next time, just use ur logic a lil before u talk shit about sucessful people like Armando etc..

J. Lo and Jessica Simpson are successful, Armando is not. Armando is broke and facing prison for not paying bills. So it looks like YOU, Veronica, I mean Venerra, are the one who needs to do your research.

Why would He give it free the world is still to make money. When you give something away for free there is no commitment there but when they use their own monry there is get ur facts straight. Look at John Welch from AMW he does a safeside Dvd and he sells that why not give it free if he is helping kids. It’s all the same

Stars and clothing lines, and Armando and his e books, are apples and oranges.

Armando is using the internet, A&E, America’s fasination with the renovation / flip trend, and the underlying greed to get rich, at any or anyones expense. Armando is far far from successful, and this site and its posters prove it.

Wow… alot of talk about someone and their method of operation you should “avoid like the plague!” And by all means I’M NOT ARMONDO! Regardless of who’s right or who’s wrong… the basis of all this is from ONE guys’s opinion of a book. I’ll be honest, I was researching Armonodo. Why? Because I was going to buy his e book, as well as the DVD. Why??? Because I have a family and want something better for them than I’m currently able to provide. Because I WAS entertained by watching him on AnE. I’m sure that there is alot more to “flipping property” than a sugarcoated success story… I’ll say this, “whatever HE IS DOING…. HE’S DRIVING A HUMMER, AND FLYING HIS FAMILY OUT ON VACATIONS”. Something I’m NOT doing at this point. So if anything, he’s made an impression on me to make a few goals, and get a plan. So with that said, STOP HATING ON THE GUY…why devote that much time and brain power to something YOU’RE not going to change. Thanks for the info though~! I don’t know that I’ll be buying his “infomercial literature” now. I make the 154th post. Not one thing demeaning said.

Thank you Robert.. finally someone without some kind of agenda here. I hate to say it, but Mike Voss has been very bitter since posting his review. All you have to do is read thru the postings on this forum to see that. I don’t have a problem with that per se.. just kindof thought that if your that successful in what you do, why do you have so much time to troll this website? I’m definately not a fan of armando.. i think he’s a crook and a liar just like i do Richard at Trademark and all the rest.. just thought that everyone is wasting way too much time on this subject.. and guess what? now i have too!!!

What can I say…criminals taking people’s money make me bitter. I hate criminals without regard to whether or not they’re funny to watch on TV. OJ was great to watch carry a football and I hate him too, you know?

BTW Armando does not own a Hummer (it’s leased) and is in extreme legal trouble at present which will likely end his ‘flipping’, which he never did once successfully btw.

Why by when it’s cheaper to lease than buy you guys feel cause you get some money a person should blow it on expensive things not true that’s how rich peoplego broke. And who cards if you leasing either way it is still yours

Wow… alot of talk about someone and their method of operation you should “avoid like the plague!” And by all means I’M NOT ARMONDO! Regardless of who’s right or who’s wrong… the basis of all this is from ONE guys’s opinion of a book. I’ll be honest, I was researching Armonodo. Why? Because I was going to buy his e book, as well as the DVD. Why??? Because I have a family and want something better for them than I’m currently able to provide. Because I WAS entertained by watching him on AnE. I’m sure that there is alot more to “flipping property” than a sugarcoated success story… I’ll say this, “whatever HE IS DOING…. HE’S DRIVING A HUMMER, AND FLYING HIS FAMILY OUT ON VACATIONS”. Something I’m NOT doing at this point. So if anything, he’s made an impression on me to make a few goals, and get a plan. So with that said, STOP HATING ON THE GUY…why devote that much time and brain power to something YOU’RE not going to change. Thanks for the info though~! I don’t know that I’ll be buying his “infomercial literature” now. I make the 154th post. Not one thing demeaning said.

Send me your email fanilly someone that wants to do something other than down people

Thanks for the review Mike. I actually arrived here via “Google” as I looked up more information on this guy when I heard him spout off on a rerun of FTH that he did “Over a thousand flips in 5 years”. I didn’t need to read a review on his e-book to know this guy is whacked . . . . Even if every one of his “Flips” takes an unrealistically short time of 8 weeks to complete, (including scouting, previewing, purchasing, escrow, repair, marketing, and oh yeah, another escrow. . .) then that means he is consistantly working on 30+ properties on any given day. Here, let me put it into perspective for some of these readers who just can’t seem to comprehend common sense:

That’s finding and purchasing one property every 43 hours.

HELLO? Some of you still don’t get it? OK, how about this. . . .

Statistics show that an investor will look at 50 to 100 properties before he makes a deal on one. . . . So giving Mr. Montelongo the benefit of the doubt, let’s say he’s way better than all other investors and only has to look at 15 properties to find one realistic investment. That means he has to look at 17 properties every 12 hour day including weekends and holidays. All while writing offers, considering incoming offers, writing counter offers, and still overseeing the subcontractors, inspectors, and deliveries on the 30 current projects that are continually ongoing, not to mention taking the time to make up 3 or 4 aliases and reply numerous times to your comments on this site! No wonder this guy aint getting any sleep! LOL

Sorry Mike,
It’s actually only viewing about 8 properties every 12 hour day while juggling the subcontractors on 30. Which doesn’t make it any more viable, it just confirms I’m not a mathematician!
P.S. If he goes by his own recommendation (on his current 30 houses) that the subs send 4 digital pictures per room every day, he would be downloading and reviewing 720 to 1200 pictures every day.
Am I an idiot or is this guy wishing he made up a smaller number to brag about on national TV? Like maybe an impressive 100 in 5 years? Nah, not even . . .

“Richard” wrote: “And who cares if you leasing either way it is still yours.”

Possibly this is the stupidest statement ever made on this website. Not only is something NOT ‘yours’ if you are leasing it (it’s title belongs 100% to someone else) but, in fact, you are paying off their loan on that item and paying to rent it. You have zero equity in whatever it is (house, car, etc.) and are *giving away* your money to rent that item. Now, with a house this may be unavoidable if you cannot afford to buy, but in the case of an automobile, you are paying high interest on a depreciating asset in which you have no equity – possibly the stupidest way imaginable to throw away money and a practice primarily utilized by poor people.

Armando leases vehicles he can’t afford to fool people like you into thinking he’s wealthy so you’ll buy his worthless products. And guess what? It worked. Here you sit droning on clinging desperately to the belief that a guy who has been proven to be incompetent, insolvent, and a criminal is a rich role model expert in real estate. If this were a card game, you’d be the one looking around the table unable to figure out who the sucker is….because it’s you.

I recently watched an episode (the cat/rat/roach house) Have to wonder why this guy never gets an inspection? he foolishly paid 24k to have a reroute done at $500 a foot. Insane price for the area. The cost should have been half that had he had any idea what he was doing. Labor in south Tx is cheap even if Plumbers aren’t. I doubt his assets are any where as great as his debts. Having no skills in any of the building trades put him at a enormous disadvantage. He is completely at the mercy of the subs. The only things he and his wife do in once in a while is rip something out or spray bees etc, both of which are least expensive things to do on any remodel. having a bad tile job torn up because no one made sure the tile contractor knew what he was doing or bothered to check the work progress until most of it was laid already is the kind of stuff that is always happening on the show. I hope the show pays him because he certainly couldn’t be making any money the way he runs his flipping business. I wonder if he’s running out of subs in San Antonio by now?

Again, You have to agree with M. Voss, They are still callng me to invest into their
scam, I had to threaten them not to call anymore, Just look on YOUTUBE and search dumbdumb and also look at “Sam Leccima”
and as Paul Harvey says: Now you know the rest of the story”
Follow-up from quote #96

Ive been an investor for about 5 years and have bought and sold over 80 properties. I have made my share of mistakes, but I have also seen this business work. I purchased one property from an REO agent for 80k and refinanced it for 180k pulled out my money and rented it out. Some I keep some I flip. I am always looking for new ways to make deals, so I buy lots of courses. My first one was Carlton Sheets and my last one was Armando’s Course. If I can just learn one new tip that can make me money, the course was worth it. Armando’s course is just like all the others, they are all about 90% the same, I just look for the 10% that might be a new technique that I can use. I think 30 properties a month is tough, I have done upto 10 in a month and it was tough. But, I have to say being in the business, that his course did not have any thing I thought was so far off to say his course sucks. Since I know the business, I can tell you that a novice could learn about real estate through his course. At least to get started, the rest you learn on the job.

Incredible and Mike, very nice review, and you tell nothing but the truth.

Several real estate guru’s who lied are now in prison. Does anyone remember William Mccorkle? he is in a Florida prison, serving 24 years and still has about 17 years left of his sentence and his wife is even behind bars.

If you look at the home Armondo lives in, it certainly is not a mansion and the Mercedes his wife drives? probably leased and anyone with a decently good credit score can lease a Mercedes.

recently heard armando’s add on the radio. called for the free cd. then the calls started wanting me on their mentoring program, if i was chosen to be “worthy.” we talked money & i verbally comitted to $10,000 for 6 t 18 months of intense training. i had the weekend to think about it and found this site while doing “d-d.” i was almost sucked in & thank god i thought about it. thanks mike for the time and effort.

A&E, is it not the Arts & Entertainment network. Maybe Armando embellishes a little bit and not all is perfect. However his show is in its fourth year, how many shows last this long, even a full season. MY organization is just beginning, inspired by Armando and his competitors on various programs. However we have over 100 years of combined experience in remodel and new construction, both residential and commercial. However in defense of Armando I will tell you that as a young man of 24 years I was a project director for new construction for a major US corporation in modular housing. I grew up around construction but had never experienced it on a professional level until I joined this company. At 58 years I am still learning every day, although my knowledge was considered very extensive at the time. I’m sure A&E would not allow a total fraud to represent them on national television. His beliefs work for him and I believe he is sincere in his intentions; it’s very easy to pick apart the successes of others, as no one is perfect. My significant other says that I’m a salesman (or full of BS) well I am an optimist and a motivator of Ideas and concepts, so I understand Armando, I also understand that many times we as individuals can make mistakes as we are human, and the paths we take are not as perfect as we would like them to be. Flipping homes is not for the faint of heart; one must educate themselves in a variety of areas, Real Estate, Finance, Construction, Marketing, Perseverance, & Stubbornness. View the program as entertainment, it has value, takes it’s inspiration and run with it, use Armando as a stepping stone to achieve your goals, further explore the other reality programs which there are many on TV. Use the internet as a tool to gather information pertinent to your dreams, and when you feel confidant, go forward with hope and inspiration. I personally have attended Rich Dad programs and purchased the speakers programs costing several hundreds of dollars or other programs talking about success, programs can fortify and bring closure to your own feeling and thoughts. All of these Authors believe in what they profess and in defense of Armando I truly believe it is also true of him. One has to hold onto their dreams, not allowing others to topple one’s perception of him and their goals. One last thing in passing, when buying any program I am thankful when I can find a useful piece of information in what I have paid for, not all information is useful, in fact most information is pretty much already known. My advice for purchasing information from any vendor is the same advice you receive when going to VEGAS, Only gamble what you can afford to loose. Do your due diligence with all vendors and the best of luck to all of you reaching for the American dream; don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. I’m sure that Armando is watching this blog, and if he has stepped into muddy waters, only time will tell if the water becomes clear. Good Luck Armando Montelegro, my prayers are with you and thank you for re inspiring me.
Randy Richardson

Randy wrote:
“…I’m sure that Armando is watching this blog, and if he has stepped into muddy waters, only time will tell if the water becomes clear. Good Luck Armando Montelegro, my prayers are with you and thank you for re inspiring me.”

I just love these short on specifics inspirational Montelongo worship posts.

Sorry, but this guy has been bad news from day one.

Are you inspiring to become an indicted felon or a slum lord – like Armando?

Armando and Veronica are on a death spiral of debt and are willing to take anyone down with them.

All of the stuff Armando is charging thousands of dollars can be found in the public library fro FREE!

I have nothing against inspiration and the desire to succeed, but you might think about picking someone else to be inspired by and leave your wallet at home.

I found this article about Flopper being arrested, information about the affidavit regarding Linda Gass, owner of Reliance Appraisal Service against Montelongo’s company Mandoman Management, etc.; It also gives information about the September 2007 Montelongo Acquisitions, Inc. for almost $6000 delinquent taxes situation; then it has a paragraph about the June 2007 lawsuit alleging that his company Montelongo Developments LLC, took $5000 in earnest month and $500 in option money from a California investor and states that David was not a part of this; after discussion on each of these topics it then closes with them selling a series of e-books called “Flip It Now” and home study course on CD. I take it that maybe this is the newspapers way of helping readers put all theses charges, together with what they are in to now and in their way helping people Stop – Read – Reconsider – Research, before getting taken for their hard earned money, including anyone Flopper hires to do business for him. Just my opinion. (Linda, I hope it was okay to use your name/company since it was printed in the paper).
Have Fun Reading,

BTW – It is sad about the insurance situation that all of us deal with in life but how will AM be able to afford insurance on his wife and son while he is in JAIL? Did that drive for money have anything to do with all these in coming criminal arrests and reports? You do not have to walk over others, screw them out of money, or take the stupid chances he has taken in USA.
Sorry, I just can’t listen to his whinny stories told that makes him sound like the average “I had nothing but look at me now.”
SHOCKING – WHAT A CROCK!!!!

It seems that your site goes nowhere, gives no information, and I have brought up web searching only one company called evergreen investments. Before I email them to see if you might be found at their company could you please explain why your link is maybe not functioning? And, by the way,
you typed “Good Luck Armando Montelegro” which his name is “Montelongo” – seems like you are not versed enough on this subject.
regards,
Jennifer

I read the course also, the price was about $550, and then they wanted me to sign up for extra support for one year for between $5k-$10k. Of course I don’t have that kind of money, so they told me to borrow as much as I could get to send to them. It just did not feel right. I immediatly sent the course back and cancelled my credit card. I know now there are many other avenues I can take to get to my goal, other than some get rich scheme.

Right on Mike! I am a mortgage banker and would be more than willing to pull Armando’s credit for free. Now that would be some entertaining reading. By the way who is this Venera….from reading her posts I think she should consider changing her name to Venerial…..

Ive done some research and while mr montelongo jr and wife victoria have multiple houses in their names and the name of the company, oddly enough, the house listed as the address of the owner of their properties for tax purposed doesnt even belong to them. How can you be an expert real estate guru but not have the sense to own where you live? shouldnt “dont pay rent” be your first rule of thumb?

Thanks Mike for your review, I agree with most of your opinions although you did contradict yourself when speaking of the use of a realtor (REALTOR is not a job description, it is a term that means a sales agent belongs to the National Association of Realtors and only approx 50% of real estate sales agents belong) by saying Armondo’s fatal flaw is to suggest you dont need expertise in an endeavor to be successful at it. Who has more expertise in real estate transactions than real estate agents?? “Anyone who thinks they can make a living dealing in a commodity in which they are anything less than an expert is a fool.”
Sorry just had to make that point for all of us “REALTORS” haha.

I know this is pretty late in the game but I’d like to thank a few of the regular posters here (namely Mike Voss) and the humble webmaster. The rest of you know who you are, thanks.

I haven’t read this entire thread of comments as I need a break after reading all 1700+ posts of the “Has anyone purchased AM’s…” thread, but I also want to comment on the hilarity of AM’s shill posting. I forget the numbers in ASN (Armando Shill Notation), but the best part is how he consistently misspells what I assume to be “whiners” as “winers”. For example “you are all just winers and haters!” Perhaps he is misspelling “winners”, as in opposed to losers? At least he stopped putting a “/” after every “‘”. DAMN THESE FAT FINGERS!

I will admit, my first time reading your review. I will say you work hard on your reviews, so as they say in the ghetto, “mad props”….. I watch the show, but I have always wondered how they talk contractors down 30 or 40k. And really, you never see a house sell. What is this for FTH, 2 of the their ones have gone down in flames?

Well just got an email from our hero, and guess what He’s in New York filming an infomercial. And he’s rubbing elbows with you guessed it The Donald. It seems fat boy is filming his spot right after The king of pompous aholes gets done with his. What next Montelogo Tower?

I enjoyed your review of Armandos ebook. I too have had a hard time swallowing the fact that he could buy and flip 30 houses per month.

If one person is buying and selling that many properties, he must be putting a lot of realtors and other investors out of business.

First from my experience, there are only about 30 good deals being bought in my market per month and that would mean that armando is the only mover and shaker in town, which is not the case.

You can search the MLS right now and i bet you wouldn’t be able to find 5 properties that qualify for a good flip, since most markets are filled with REO’s that are only being sold at 85% of fair market value.

All that talk about flipping 30 houses per month is a joke.

Why is he not showing other projects on his tv shows. A big time player like that would love the exposure driving 30 properites a day saying “yeah this is what i am doing, while shooting tv shows.”

I know i am not the only one that wants to see his vast portfolio of deals that he is working at one time.

RE: post 193: Jo – correction – I should have said agent as opposed to realtor in that context – that is correct. (actually sales agent is the proper RE term) However, I do stand by the statement. The VAST majority of agents I encounter know a lot about selling and closing and very, very little about houses. Even the ones who know about houses have the cliched, pop-culture knowledge and not much else. I’ve met the top 5 agents in my area, several of whom are number one nationwide for their respective brokerages. Not one of them has a clue. They’re just commissioned salespeople.

RE agents can indeed have experience in many transactions, but that’s not quite what I was addressing. A competent RE lawyer actually will have far more experience than a RE agent and that’s who I’d talk to if I were looking for advice on RE transactions. While I never use agents, I use such a lawyer on just about every transaction.

So, we’re talking about 2 things in actuality – understanding RE transactions (maybe maximum of 10% of the deal) and understanding house construction, maint. and repair – that’s the important part in this context.

I do like watching flipping shows, but the ones with Armando are the funniest. But if you really want to see how some things really are try TLC’s Flip that House. Armando, thanks for the laughs, but I know that will soon come to an end!

I agree $100 for Armandos ebooks are a rip off as is his other crap he’s peddling. I just bought his ebooks along with about 300 others as a package deal on ebay for $20. There is some good tips in there but you must have common sense and preferably some experience in some aspect of flipping before doing it.
I can say Armando knows a hell of a lot more that Mike Voss does.
Mike, have you ever flipped a house?
Some of your comments are assinine such as saying not to use a hard money lender and use a conventional mortgage to buy a flip house. No one but a hard money lender is going to lend money on most flip house. Mortgage companies require inspections and appraisals and most flip houses would not pass.
My hard money lender approves my flip houses in 5-7 days, try that with a bank! After your flip is done and house is inspectable and you can’t sell it fast or want to rent it out then switch to a regular mortgage. That’s good advice.
I haven’t read this site for 6 months and what a libel lounge it has become.
If I was Armando I’d sue most of you here.
Use common sense people when reading or watching anything Armando or anyone else does. Common sense tells me that if Armando (or anyone else)really wanted to ‘help’ people and he’s already a multi millionaire then he’d give his crap away free, right?
There’s plenty of free stuff on the internet and cheap stuff on ebay to get on flipping houses.
Stupid people are going to get ripped off by Armando and others. If you get ripped off, think of it as a lesson learned and don’t repeat it, simple as that.
And Mike, you really need to let go of this infatuation you have with Armando, there’s more important things to be doing with your life that this obsession.
Good day, I may come back in 6 months but when I do I expect Armando to be richer and Mike to still have not flipped his first house.
Later.

Hey “Lee” – idiot, my last project house I bought for $500,000 and sold for $1.6MM as documented here many times, and I’ve been doing such projects for over 20 years. You, on the other hand, are an Armando follower with your pathetic “I buy houses” website and bandit signs on telephone poles. Loser. You couldn’t shine my shoes. My watch is worth more than your project profits I’ll wager.

And “Larry” if you want to call me a “pussy” to my face I’ll be glad to meet you and give you the opportunity. How about in the MMA octagon? We’ll see who’s a pussy, pal. And I’ll videotape it and post it here for all to watch. When are you available?

Hey everyone, if you want to see what a lowlife bottom feeder like Armando inspires, check out “Lee’s” website. Note the ghetto houses with such features as lowest-end appliances and 1970’s vintage formica countertops. You can see why he defends Armando – they’re of the same ilk – bottom feeders.

I have nothing to do with this or any other anti-Armando website, moron. And only cowards hide behind fake names while bad mouthing people. (like Armando)

I’ll stand up to assholes like you or Armando anytime. It hardly takes any effort since none of you have the nerve to face me. If not for your puerile, illiterate posts you’d not even exist.

Since I have no interest in you nor Armando’s other shills however, and since he’ll be in prison soon, I leave you to mouth off all you want as I have better things to do. So long. Armando has been exposed and is broke and headed for jail. My work here is done.

Mike, thank you for exposing Armando. The only reason people watch his show is not to learn about his flawed real estate skills, but because he has a lovely wife/partner. Don’t bother with “Get of Life” or “Lee” as they’d NEVER say anything to your face.

Lee – Armando cannot sue anyone here for anything for the most part because libel or slander requires something untruthful to be said. With the exception of the positive things said about Armando, mostly by fake posters who never return and Armando himself, everything said by Boyson, Mike Voss, Steve, and others has been true. As such, Montelongo cannot do a thing legally – he has no case.

You should read more carefully and learn about the law, as you are far, far closer to legally actionable statements that could land you in court than they are.

Mike, you sure get bent out of shape a lot for someone who is a self made millionare and living the good life. Don’t think I’ve ever heard of millionares so ready to meet up for fights from online forums….

I had the misfortune of receiving Armondo’s information as a reference from a contractor. When I called this character for the contractor’s reference, he told me to “watch his show.” Not knowing who he was nor ever seeing his “show” he proceeded to tell me how famous he was and how I should again, stop what I was doing and watch his #*%$## show. It was the strangest phone call I have ever been on. He was clearly a legend in his own shower.

Several weeks later, I was in the lobby of my bank listening to the news over the radio and heard that Armondo Montelongo was being charged with felony theft of services. I had asked my banker if he had ever heard of this character and told him of my weird phone call.

“Do I know him, he banks here!” Needless to say we had a very interesting conversation. He made me promise to never tell anyone, so I will keep the bank and employee nameless.

Armondo is broke. He bounces checks left and right. The bank has closed several of his accounts because he has exceeded the number of NSF’s allowed. Collection companies are constantly calling the bank trying to find Armondo.

I thought it was hillarious they way he projected himself only to find out he doesn’t have a penny to his name. I didn’t have any idea he had defrauded so many people and there were so many people that had been taken advantage by him until now. I hope my posting helps others stay clear from this guy or at least make a more informed decision.

He has every thing in hus wifes name so thay can’t touch him. No he did not sell my house as he stated in his show. The lady that was suppost to buy it was an employ of his and not a real customer. I have been told by the neighbors that he is renting it for 1200 a month.

Dorothy

No I did not take action as I have no money for a lawyer and I am on my third place to live. Just trying to survive.

Thamks Mike! I did get burned but not by the book by his radio add. Something about get all his knowledge for “free” just pay shipping and handleing. I thought what could it hurt to see what the hype was. I never opened the package because i finally saw his show and knew (having some experience in construction) that he was a TOOL!! two months later I get a call from one of his (associates) giving me the offer of a lifetime to work directly with THE ONE AND ONLY when I said I wasnt interested he put his supervisor on the phone to try to sell me this opportunity for 20K????? when I told him what I thought of Armando he showed his tru side being a bottom feeded used car/telemarketer/scam artist. Then 2 weeks later I get another call same deal its like he has a little scam mill going on over there. The height was when I find out he was charging my CC 79.99 PER MONTH for 5 months??? for the books that were FREE?? Now here I am clearly also a moron because I dont watch my accounts like I should I know. But I called the number listed on CC Statement WRONG # then found the number waas hung up on told I should have looked at my statement and I should have opened the box because it stated I would be charged in future??? Next she said she was the manager and I was a fool because “the box weighed 5 lbs. and I should have known nothing free was going to weigh 5 lbs” seriously this guy and his goons should all go to jail. I filed a police report and disputed CC charge. Co-Moron

Todd, it sounds like you are the “Moron.” Nothing in life is free. You think people make money by giving free trials to everybody? You’re the one at fault. Getting rich is not easy.
Even if Armando is legit (I said “if” people, don’t start saying that I’m Armando or am an advocate of him), the most he’s going to show you is how to make a lot of money by busting your ass and being determined. You ineptitude and inability to open a 5 lb. box or not reading the fine print behind the “free” offer is not any fault of Armando. Its purely your fault. Its really hard to feel sorry for suckers.

Thanks Mike. When my wife told me a guy from San Antonio was on fth, in his 2nd episode, I called a couple of people in San Antone to check this guy. This guy’s rep was already on the street. Has been a laugh ever since. Someone told me that the appraiser, sued him for not paying fees, was warned about him.

Funny, I know a guy in Atlanta that tells me that the fth guy there didnt like to pays his bills, either. have not looked at his bad press and guess he has it.

I was one of the idiots who bought into the Montelongo coaching spiel. When I voiced my initial concerns because of what I read on this website, they assured me that they were in the process of suing for slander and that Armando was he real deal. I told them I had just lost my husband and still had funeral expenses to pay off so I couldn’t afford their price. They gave me a “special price” of $3,250 for the materials and coaching. They also put me in touch with one of their top students who lives in my area. I spoke with him twice before signing on and he indicated that he would partner up with me or at least do some walk-through’s on my projects. He is supposedly making a ton of money with REO’s, which is hard to believe because the banks are not budging on negotiating. After I paid for the program. . .this guy wouldn’t even return my calls; he disappeared, other than doing testimonials for Armando. The two individuals who sold me the program additionally haven’t returned my calls. I plan on getting my money back via their guarantee if I don’t do a deal soon. Any suggestions? Should I notify the Attorney General’s office?
I’ve got alot more to say about my experiences thus far, but I don’t want to babble. I just want my money back.

Loved the review. I was curious about what that ego driven loon wrote. His opinions are foolish and anyone who bought into this should demand a full refund. He is a con artist plain and simple. I hope lawsuits plague him for years to come for taking advantage of people. Oh by the way, what genius put this guy on TV? If he had not been given the television platform, he would not have had the opportunity to take advantage of so many people.

I ordered Armando program an i have been playing his CDs over and over.My job has me traveling and because of this fact I have played his CDs and put them on my ipod.I have wanted to get into fliping for a long time.I listen to Armando’s program all of the time.After about 4 month listening to the program. I have a few things to say about the report from Mike Voss about Armando’s program and all of the people that hate Armando.First of all im sure that most people order something like Armando’s program hear it a few time and think they are going to get rich fast and think they are smarter then Armando.This means that these people will not go over Armando’s CDs to really understand what he is telling you.I would like to know about this Mike Voss how does he think he knows it all.I tried to find some info on who is Mile Voss and nothing came up on him on line, Mike Voss has no creditably on making comments about Armando’s program or anybodys book or program!The way Mike Voss attacks Armando you would think Mike is somekind of expert in the field of rehab or fliping.I almost bet he hasnt sold real estate or bought houses and rehab them for profit. Other people like you didnt take real time hearing the program,how could you make any conclusions about somthing you people havent listen to or you did listen but only a few times then you put the program down and thought that what he said should have gave you a top secret way of making money. The info he has is smart and common since driven.It takes work on your part to make Armando’s program work.This is the typical way that most Americans are.They think that making money should be handed to them and getting rich is eazy to do and shouldnt take any work on there part.As far as Mike Voss I can tell he did read some of Armando’s CDs but was incorrect on many parts about the program.By the way Did Mike Voss try to see if Armando’s program works? I want Mike Voss to post a comment on here telling everone about his experience in flipping and what makes him a expert in knowing what program works and dont work.I am on Armando’s side,not because he is somewhat of a TV star,or im stupid.Its because i took the time to take a shot at spending money to buy the program.I listen to the CDs for about 4 solid months,took the info I got from his CDs and I went out found my first flip,fixed the house,sold the house,made 30,000 profit doing my second house now.I did have a hard time finding a lender only because so many people went out,bought house they couldnt afford and got foreclosed on.Linder are scared to give out loans right now.Yes in Armando’s program it said if the deal is right anyone can get the loans even if you have bad credit.This was true before all of the recent 700 billon goverment bail out and foreclosures at a all time high this summer has changed the way linders give money out.( By the way did you know that a regular bank will not lend you money on a house that need a lot of repairs,that why you go to a hard money linder.)Armando never said it is a quick get rich program,some people think it should be.I have somewhat bad credit and i found a linder and I resold my house in a few months and I live Kansas City Metro area (midwest) Not LA,Ca,TX,FL.Go ahead and stay in you jobs that have you stuck in midclass to poor lifestyle.I think that because you dont have any money and people like Armando do,you want to attack him a say his program is crap and BS.Trump is a billionare right now,but he has lost all of his money a few time before,that how it goes in business.There is risk and it takes a lot of work.Bottom line Armando cant make you rich he can just tell you how to better your chances in making money in flipping.Dont be so lazy and think everything must be handed to you.Armando only gives info on it.Im sorry if you are so stupid that when you order a program on rehab property that you think it is a snap or you dont have to put alot of work into it.I put a lot of time and work into flipping and have made great money.I forgot to tell all of you I am a dumb old truck driver and I got Armando Montelongo’s program and i am making good money.Now what do you have to say about that!? What a waste of time for you to have a websight attacking Armando.Get a life people.(I bet that the person that runs this website will not keep my message on this site very long)I think the person that has or started this website must have worked with Armando,A@E or trademark properties, To attack him and his program.Remember this message is only my opinion and I do not work for Armando Montelongo!One more thing,about Armando’s charge of Felony of Services,it is a fancy word to make it sound really bad.It is a appraiser that says Armando owes this appraiser 4,000 dollars.So just because another company,(the appraiser) says that Armando’s company owes him money that means Armando should just pay out money just because the appraiser said he owes it.Is it possible that the appraiser is wrong? So ok that means that i will sue Mike Voss for 10 million dollars because i say he owes me.Since i said he owes me he should pay up right???Im sure Mike Voss wouldnt just pay me without a fight.I dont know Armando at all but i think he is a target because he is on TV,good looking,has a strong personality,and has money!Even thought you claim he is broke.(how would you know,did you see his taxes?)Just something to think about.

Thank you Craig. We are an average lower middle class family earning around $60,000 a year working 8 to faint and I watch “Flip that House or Flip this House” and other shows like this religiously because I am one of those stupid people who believes that there is truly a better way to get ahead in life other than working a 9-5 until your 80. I agree with you whole heartedly that anything worth having is worth working for. I admire the Montelongo’s for their determination to make something out of nothing, and if Armando’s book sounds like a “Drug Dealers Guide to flipping houses” ….well every billionaire that has a rags to riches story that I have ever heard of or read about has had a “Hustler” mentality. This is a dog eat dog world. Going into business for yourself is a survival of the fittest game. MOST DON’T SURVIVE!

One of the best things that Craig stated was that he listened to the CD’s over and over and over again for 4months. By doing this I am sure each time he heard this information he picked up something that he may not have heard before. This information is to get you started. You have to , You must go and dig deep, sacrifice sleep, sacrifice your socializing time to make your dreams come true. By the way anytime I have ever done research I have always used more than one reference. So in closing read this book and the other books that Mike Voss recommended. Then go step out on faith and make a miracle happen for you and your family. Change your families future. Stop whining and go win. Every millionaire and every billionaire has failed many many times before they actually got it right.

I can tell you what it would cost to get this book, but what I can’t tell you is what it might cost you and your family if YOU DON’T GET IT. IF YOU DON’T DREAM BIGGER! MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND.

Yes, yes, YES!!! What a great motivational post! Between your and Craig’s post I’m now convinced. I’m going to purchase the program and consult it every day! When I get houses to flip I’m going to watch A&E reruns and emulate AM’s methods to the last detail! I just know if I stick with it I’ll be rich just like AM! Then I will get a Hummer, a hot Latina GF, and be a big shot celebrity! Woo hoo!!! i tried this with Tom Vu’s program years ago but it didn’t work because I didn’t try it long enough. But AM is smarter and I just know it will work!!!

It’s interesting how much time and effort is spent discrediting Armando and his ebook. Armando, or anyone for that matter, who publishes a get-rich-quick program is NOT trying to improve your knowledge. The entire point of this ebook is to generate money for himself. Anyone who seriously considers a get-rich-quick program as a legitimate source of knowledge was doomed long before reading it. If you’re going to spend $100 on something like this with hopes of getting anything more than a very basic starting point and a couple of trivial tips probably deserves to lose their $100. And this won’t be the last time it happens to them. And that’s life.

Let’s be honest and look at this review (and the web site it is hosted on) for what it is: a biased opinion from a person who doesn’t like Armando as a person.

In order to actually review this program in an objective manner one must strip entirely any personal opinion about the program or it’s author. Only then can a true review be written. This review is just preaching to the choir. It’s self-masturbatory.

With that said, if you want to flip houses it’s not going to happen by reading Armando’s ebook, or any other e or hardcopy book out there. Like anything else in life you need to research, work, work, fail, and then work some more.

@Craig: It’s called a paragraph. I’d never have guessed you were a truck driver.

@CiCi: “I can tell you what it would cost to get this book, but what I can’t tell you is what it might cost you and your family if YOU DON’T GET IT.” You should look into starting an ad agency for the mob. I heard they were hiring.

I bought Armando’s book. I threw it away just last week. I didn’t know what a creep he was. I wish I could get my $35 back. His book is very vague. He wants you to buy the full package. Although his salespeople called me everyday for three months trying to convince me, I never did. I figured if you didn’t give me the info in your book, you weren’t going to take my money and then I find out the same bullshit info in the book is what’s in the entire package. I wish I would’ve found out all of this before I spent my money. Never buy anything when you’re half asleep. I purchased the book based on an informercial I saw. I liked Armando. I thought he was an upstanding guy. That was before I saw the episode about “The Cat House” where he and his brother David fell out because Armando wanted to cheaply renovate the most disgusting house in America and David wanted to it the right way. Armando is a jerk. I’m not sure why his wife is with him other than money. Obviously I’m upset. No I’m pissed. Nothing good will come to people who don’t do people right. Karma is a bitch.

The problem i have with mike voss’s review of armando’s book is that it is NOT objective. It is obvious that mike has a personal vendetta against armando. Therefore, the review is nothing more than one man’s opinion and is NOT based on fact or solid research. If mike voss really wanted to help people avoid armando’s ALLEGED scam then he would find a licensed experienced general contractor who has never met or heard of Armando and ask him or her to provide an completely neutral unbiased review of armando’s book. I am a lawyer, and in the courtroom, personal opinion is considered hearsay and would be dismissed. From a legal standpoint, mike voss has no credibliity. If you are considering purchasing armando’s book, please conduct your own due diligence and don’t let one man’s ego trip affect your final decision. The bottom line is real estate is just like everything else in life: at the end of the day, you get out of it what you put into it. If you succeed, then pat yourself on the back!! If you fail then you have no one to blame but yourself.

The problem i have with mike voss’s review of armando’s book is that it is NOT objective. It is obvious that mike has a personal vendetta against armando. Therefore, the review is nothing more than one man’s opinion and is NOT based on fact or solid research. If mike voss really wanted to help people avoid armando’s ALLEGED scam then he would find a licensed experienced general contractor who has never met or heard of Armando and ask him or her to provide an completely neutral unbiased review of armando’s book. I am a lawyer, and in the courtroom, personal opinion is considered hearsay and would be dismissed. From a legal standpoint, mike voss has no credibliity. If you are considering purchasing armando’s book, please conduct your own due diligence and don’t let one man’s ego trip affect your final decision. The bottom line is real estate is just like everything else in life: at the end of the day, you get out of it what you put into it. If you succeed, then pat yourself on the back!! If you fail then you have no one to blame but yourself.

Oh please, Armando. No Lawyer would write what is in post 230, and you’re so fucking transparent – you even use the same tells that are all over this website (the misspelled word “hancho”for one, the retarded English skills for another from your 4th grade education for another, you moron). Considering that Voss is a licensed inspector for one thing, I’d say he has substantial legal credibility. Your claiming otherwise in this format would actually constitute libel, you fool. Again, something NO lawyer would do.

I *AM* a lawyer, and have seen your materials and can say with perfect credibility that they are an outright ripoff and that you, sir, have NO credentials nor credibility whatsoever to be selling anything to do with real estate. THAT is a demonstrable fact.

Any reader of this thread will see post 230 for what it is – a pathetic attempt by Montelongo to put something to control spin at the end of the thread to control damage. Considering that he’s been dropped by A&E, faces a class action lawsuit, has dozens of civil and criminal cases against him, and has never flipped a single house profitably, it’s pretty clear that Armando Montelong jumped the shark ages ago and has been completely discredited and shown to be what he is: a con artist and criminal.

Wow. I just spent a an hour reading all the posts. Very entertaining and very interesting.

From what I read, I have the following comments –

1) I never want to see someone not succeed or go bankrupt BUT if someone is ripping people off for a living, then they deserve to be in jail. From the information I’ve seen/read, Armando needs to face charges and let the judge or jury make a decision.

2) A lot of people do not know how to spell.

3) There’s NEVER an easy way of getting rich. The ONLY way is to work hard and treat people with respect. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I’m in business and when people ask me for advice, I give it for free of charge. I know that I can make money from charging people for my advice but I don’t.

4) Mike Voss’ statements were for the most part validated by facts and data. This brings a level of credibility to his statements.

5) Always do your homework before spending money on things you can get FOR FREE!!!! For crying out loud, the lack of intelligence in some people is amazing. In most cases, the people that lose money from schemes are people that would never be able to follow through and execute a plan even if it was legit.
Take the money you have and put it to work for you in a way that you know you will benefit. If you have never been in business before, what makes you think you’re going to become a business person overnight and become rich quick?

6) Only time will tell where Armando belongs, in jail, on the streets, in a hot place (with lots of flames) or wherever! The sad thing is, his kid(s) and family will suffer from is actions.

7) There are a lot of business people that only worry about the perception of others. They think that misleading people is the only way of looking “good”.

8) If you ever watched the show and know anything about flipping or the work being done, a lot of shortcuts were taken. At most, the work was sub par.

9) One would think that a TV network would do their homework BEFORE putting some of these people on TV where they can influence millions of influential people.

10) A&E and Armando and is company should all be put on trial and if found guilty, then A&E should be held liable for promoting his propaganda. I do recall an episode where the book was promoted and where he was going to be a guest speaker for some conference.

11) One of the funniest things I read in the posts was the book and how it was published with the pages all messed up. You get what you pay for!

I’m sure there are other things but I’m done. I haven’t done a background check on Mike Voss but something would have been posted on here if he was scamming people. Thanks for exposing the facts!

Good Luck Armando! Your next gig may not be as lucrative. For your kid’s/family’s sake, I hope you stashed some money away for their future.

Armando is a modern day Jesus Christ. i have made millions using his programs. I love you Armando thank you for the help!!!!!!!!!!! Mr. Voss you are the devil and lier i will be reporting you to FBI. Either delete this blog or I will sue you two.

Yes, I too have made millions using Armando’s system! I had no money, bad credit, and no brains! I simply gave all my money to Mondo, then followed his system! Now I am rich! I have more hot bikini-clad women than Tom Vu,turn more real estate deals that Robert Kiyosaki, and flip at least one house every day! Contact me and I’ll give you a great deal on my seaside lots in Kansas! WooHoo!!! It’s great to be rich!!!

I too want to make millions and be rich like you. Can you help me? If I give all my munny to Armando will I then be rich two? Rite now I dont have no munny but maybe Armando will train me free then I will give him lots of munny later when I am rich? What do you think zwhacko? Will you help me?

Actually… post number 229 where “Armando Montelongo” wrote: “I am a lawyer, and in the courtroom, personal opinion is considered hearsay and would be dismissed. From a legal standpoint, mike voss has no credibliity.” is a perfect example of the disregard for the intelligence of others that this group has. (When I say “this group”, I mean Armando and his gang – Matt Mattson and Richard Layton, primarily.)

I went to one of the “free” seminars in Walnut Creek, California, Tuesday night. It’s not surprising, by the way, that they assign no value to our time; no appreciation for or acknowledgment of the gas we burned to travel anywhere from 5 to 150 miles to sit in the chair or the babysitters many people had to hire. These blowhards went on and on from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m. – practically non-stop! I only stayed for the whole thing so I could make an assessment of the evening based on the whole picture.

First of all, I’m NOT a lawyer. I’m a school teacher. But, here’s what even I know about “hearsay”: &nbsp&nbspfor over 250 years, “hearsay” evidence has been defined as “evidence based not on a witness’s personal knowledge but on another’s statement not made under oath”. Hearsay has nothing to do with the opinion of someone who’s “testifying”. There are many “opinions” that courts take into consideration. That’s why experts get paid thousands and thousands of dollars! And, judging by what I have read throughout this blog, Mike Voss appears to be considered an expert by many.

By the way, there have actually been times when “hearsay” is deemed acceptable; in Drew Peterson’s current case, for example. His dead wife’s words are being allowed through her friends and family.

Secondly, the observance of Armando as a “cheerleader” was hilarious! Armando, “All millionaires do things NOW! All millionaires do things when?” Audience, “now”. Armando, “I can’t hear you! When?” “Now!” With his hand to his ear, “When?” “NOW!” That’s just one example of the hyped up chants he presented his audience throughout his very short presentation. After all, his time is valuable… Next, the “turbo thinker” sales technique that Matt Mattson uses is amazing! It’s meant to numb people’s brains; put them into overload so they respond automatically to the call to run to the back table and sign up for the $9,000 3-day that they are going to give you for $1,500. He goes on and on and on and on at 50 million miles an hour because he doesn’t really want you to understand anything he says. He looks at his watch over and over, shaking his head and saying, “I guess I’ll have to just skip this next section.” I guess he doesn’t think we’ll notice that he didn’t have to skip any slides in his sideshow, I mean “slide” show.

Then there’s this technique… I think it’s called the “take away”, or something like it.

“Be sure you are one of the first 8. Wait a minute. Don’t go yet! Yada, yada, yada. Ok, we’ll try to take 12, but we have two more nights of this and turnout for this event has blown us away. We reserved a ballroom for the 3-day that will only support about 20 people. We’ll have to try to upgrade to a bigger room. We’ll find a way. Yada, yada, yada. Good news, we’ve been able to get a little bit bigger room. We only have kits for the first 12 people, but we’ll find a way to get them to another 12. The guys at the back will call out the numbers of each registration as it happens so you can know that you are close to missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime. Then he repeats one of Armando’s chants: &nbsp&nbsp”Millionaires take action when?”

Enough of that. The spelling issue is just another example of their attitude toward all of us. Especially since it’s been going on from the beginning. According to Richard Layton, the “go to guy” Armondo referred me to when I tried to talk to him about “something that could be important” as I called it, many people have pointed the errors out to them over the years. I say it’s sloppy and careless, and, in light of the fact that they have been totally aware of the errors for years and don’t waste their time or money correcting them, it seems like a, “F*** you. Who cares what you think? We’re only here to make money and there are enough suckers who don’t care how we spell.”

(Yes, bystander, Post 233, a lot of people don’t know how to spell. But they still care. And, when someone who understands that not knowing how to spell is common points out their error, they make an effort to learn and correct it. These guys just laugh behind your back.)

By the way, these aren’t subtle little errors that are hard to find. They include a reference to “Las Veagas” on the slideshow you watch as you are waiting for Armando. Then, in giant letters at the top of the first slide in his presentation, Matt shows us, “MILLIONAIRS” and “BILLIONAIRS”. And, in e-mail messages prior to the event, there was a story where someone “road into town on their motorcycle”, and the word “millionaire” is spelled several different ways.I’ve already spent far too much of my time on this, but when I found this blog, I wanted to share some of my experience, observations, and opinions.

As the last word goes… BEWARE! Make informed choices, not emotional choices!

Gosh I wish I’d have seen this review before spending a c-note on a load of garbage…

And I just love it how house flippers take credit for median home value gains…!? All that retarded 10% margins on tons of risk, undercutting each other in a saturated market. Flippers need to take a step back for a few years and instead build up rental ports… 20% caps are around in plenty.

Customer service was extremely rude and unhelpful, I found the information in his biggest kit to be elementary at best. I asked for a return due to being very disappointed and it went unanswered by him {I reached out many times to him directly} and his customer service was way out of line in their business dealing style. Very rude and unprofessional!! I would strongly recommend to avoid his organization and save their money, hire a professional realtor to help you and build a team of those who are licensed and work this field in a professional manner with Insurance.

Thank you all, so much. Like many others who’ve chosen to do research and ended up here, you’ve saved me from dropping even a penny with these charlatans, and for that, I’m grateful.

Having just sold my insurance agency and looking for another opprtunity, I chose to sit through the “free” session. I’m 55, college-educated, spent 13 years as an insurance agency owner and 18 in the computer industry before that. I’ve given my share of professional presentations, trainings and have been trained in sales and account management by some the best F500 companies in the US.

In brief, EVERYTHING posted here happened in our presentation two weeks ago (back of the room, cover that later, etc.). From about 15 minutes into it, it was CLEAR this was about selling something us else other than what we thought we came to hear (more programs). Throughout the entire 2+ hours, the cautious Paul kept saying something’s not right, while the eager Paul kept saying “$1500 is nothing to check this out”. I came close to buying, but decided to “sit on it”for a day – which is what I do on most significant purchases. In that “time to breathe”, I googled montelongo and found your site and these fellow-minded people. Nothing is ever answered, cheerleading goes on and, if you listen real close, it’s just not adding up to anything more than a scam.

Mark, Voss, Steve, wyldwmn – all of you who’ve posted are good people doing good work and I thank you for your candor and hard research. You’ve saved me, and I’m sure others, money, time and a bad, financial experience.

Ok gang. The Armando gang came into Columbus Ohio at the Hyatt downtown yesterday. Here’s the deal–nothing is free and they right away (as many above said) they kept telling the crowd that in order to do something the rich/millionaires do it NOW! The guy who lead the seminar was Mike Syme. Interesting can’t find his name anywhere on the web nor did he have a business card when during break I asked him for one.
The sales pitch was if you want to know more about Asset Based Lending sign up for our three day seminar held on 4-15 thru 18th and only for $3000! Wait pay us today and it is only $1497.00 for two people. I asked if there was a discount for only one person and was quickly told NO.
The young man next to me thought this was going to be an informative seminar and I told him it was–he just needs to do research on his own about Asset Based Lenders and cut deals on his own. He said “they tell us we don’t need money down or good credit” and I again, told him to find a good Asset Based Lender and work out deals. I told him not to waste his money (which he said he didn’t have)…
Thank you for warning people about this scam…maybe someone should tell A&E about his scam business.

Went to the seminar today. Man, I’m telling you i have never been so glad to be broke in my life. Why? because I would have spent the “reduced price” of $1497 to go to the three day class. I can’t remember the guy who was talking but he claimed to be Armando’s VP.

One thing I found interesting was when the infomercials were running, Armando kept saying we would be learning from him there. Never saw him unless you count the bigger than life cardboard figures that were all over the place. I feel bad for the people that payed now. I actually stuck around for the “free” gifts (a video and an audio CD). Some of the concepts were interesting but seemed a little bit shady. I want to invest but have no money, no job, bad credit (I hurt my back at work in 2008 and have been on workers comp since which is why I’m in the boat that I am). I am currently in college earning a degree in Economics, which the guy speaking pretty much made clear how he felt going to college was stupid since he did not have a degree, nor his wife, nor will his baby girl get either. pretty offensive but to each his own.

I’ll stick with college now (i get grants mostly to cover the costs, so my loans are minimal).

Anyway, thanks for the info and if nothing else I found this place here to be entertaining. No offense meant to anybody

I seen Armandos commershil on TV so I now am going to his seminar. I cant wayte to be rich. I know he cares about helpin people to get rich. He is rich so he dont need the money but I dont mind paying because I too will soon be rich so it dont matter. why all the hate here Armando is just tryin to help peeple.

I want to be rich, like you! I seen you on tv you said you could make many rich if they just come to your meetin. I want to come to the meetin but I wanna know how much munny can I make with your help? I know, lots, rich, but I need a number. Do I have to give you all my munny, or what? If I give you all my munny can you garantee to make me rich?